I thought we’d cover a fun topic today.  As many of you know, our company is headquartered in Seattle.  Near the top of the list of things to hassle residents of Seattle about (right behind how much it rains here) is how much coffee we drink. 

It’s true — We drink a lot of coffee.  Howard Schultz was no dummy when he founded Starbucks in this dark, dreary town where almost everyone needs a pick-me-up to face the day.

Some would say that I am particularly excessive.  A couple a years ago, we set a revenue goal as a company, and as a reward for meeting our goal, we bought the office a Gaggia automatic espresso maker.  This is a wonderful machine.  With just the push of a button, it grinds fresh coffee beans and makes two shots of steaming espresso.  

I’ve been known to drink a few of these every day that I am in the office.  In fact, after five of these double-shots within one day, I usually stop counting.  The ladies in our office claim that I’m addicted to this high-octane stuff, but I don’t think so.  I’ve always thought that it was healthy for me, and now I’ve got someone to back up my hypothesis…

Harvard Business Review ran an article this month that vindicates my position.  It turns out coffee is good for you:

“Large, long-term studies show that coffee doesn’t promote cancer and may even protect against some types.  It’s safe for the heart—so safe that the American Heart Association says it’s OK for heart attack survivors to have a cup or two a day even as they recover in the coronary care unit.
 
Results from the long-running Health Professionals Follow-Up and Nurses’ Health studies show that drinking coffee cuts the risk of dying early from heart attack or stroke.  Coffee also appears to offer some small protection against Type 2 diabetes, gallstones, and Parkinson’s disease.”

So, keep the espresso coming!  Here’s the bad news.  If you put anything in your coffee (cream, sugar, flavoring, etc.) you start to negate the health benefits. 

If you drink one of those 16-ounce Mint Mocha Chip Frappuccinos with chocolate whipped cream every day, you’re probably going to gain a bunch of weight, be depressed from an overdose of sugar (one of these drinks contains 58 grams of sugar—that’s 14 teaspoons!), and eventually die from heart disease. 

Luckily, I drink mine black….