by Lucielle Salomon

Have you ever been interested on what goes into that morning cup coffee? You can find out tonight at the South Florida Museum in Bradenton.

Coffee has been at the center of our lives for centuries.The South Florida Museum presents “Coffee: The World In Your Cup,” revealing that there is much more in your cup of coffee than you think. Tiffany Birakis, the museum’s curator, shares how one of the world’s most traded products became the American national drink.

“Coffee has impacted the American culture since the Revoution,” she says. “The Boston Tea Party, after that happened, the tax on tea, Americans switched to coffee and we’ve really never looked back.”

She says coffee is often described as work of art. Whether you drink it for a morning energy boost, or simply like the flavor, Birakis says coffee will always be associated with sparking good conversation.

“And especially with coffee, there’s always that aspect of getting together, at a place like a coffee house,” she says. “That’s a social aspect with coffee that I think we’ll never lose.”

The reception starts tonight at 5:30 p.m.

South Florida Museum presents Coffee: The World in Your Cup, an exhibit that tells the story of one of the world’s most widely traded commodities and how it has affected cultures, economies, and environments across the globe. Learn about the impacts of caffeine, the world’s most commonly-used drug, on your body, discover coffee’s early controversial reputation as a “revolutionary drink,” and consider the culture that surrounds coffee in the twenty-first century.

source: http://www.wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu / Wusf News / Home> Culture / by Lucielle Salomon / Thursday – May 29th, 2014