Oh coffee!

I just abandoned The Undercover Economist for an interesting read- Starbucked, which tells of the magic Starbucks has done and how it revolutionalized coffee and culture.

Let me quote from it -

[on the discovery of coffee beans] 'For the first time in history, humans could easily regulate their waking and working hours - all it took to lift oneself out of the fog of grogginess was a life-giving cup of coffee. Sleep, long a cruel and domineering mistress, fell under our control. As any modern cubicle dweller can confirm, coffee almost single-handedly made work possible. And centuries later, the brew would fuel the industrial revolution, especially once factory managers learned that filling workers with free coffee boosted productivity. Coffee made people feel smarter, helped them do better work, and enabled them to punch in at a consistent time every morning.'

Wow. That must have been an exxageration, for I was having my daily fix of Cafe 21 instant coffee as I read that (wait, make it my second fix)... and promptly fell asleep after that.

Nevertheless, it's an interesting read. I always marvel at how corporations manage to drive culture- think Starbucks, Apple, MacDonalds... and all things so ubiquitous you almost do not notice them.

I suspect, if Starbucks announced today that it's going to cease operations, you'd see demonstrations in the streets. Now, that's how important it is.