As we celebrate America’s independence this weekend, a closer look at how coffee helped shape a nation; plus, a Lincoln lady kidnaps Mr. Coffee.

We all know how important coffee is to us personally, but did you know that it played a significant role in helping establish the US as we know it today? Here are some quick facts to contemplate this holiday weekend:

– Legend has it that Captain John Smith brought coffee with him to Virginia when he helped found the Jamestown colony in 1607.
– The first reference on record to coffee being drunk in North America was in 1668. Soon after that date, coffeehouses were established in the major American cities of the time period such as New York, Philadelphia, and Boston.
– The Boston Tea Party was planned in a coffeehouse called the Green Dragon in 1773. It also sets off a wave of coffee drinking among colonists eager to symbolically reject the English practice of drinking tea.
– Coffeehouses on present day Wall Street were the original meeting places for the founding members of The Bank of New York and the New York Stock Exchange
– Hawaiian Kona Coffee is the only coffee grown in the 50 US states. Records date its first appearance to 1825.
– The first soluble instant coffee was created in Chicago in 1901 by Japanese-American chemist Satori Kato.
– Coffee sales saw a boom in the 1920’s as prohibition took effect. By 1940, the US was (and still is) the largest importer of coffee in the world.
– US soldiers were issued packets of instant Maxwell House coffee in their ration kits during World War II, making the phrase “war is hell” take on new meaning for those who hate instant.
– Seattle became the spiritual heart of coffee drinking in the US in the 1970’s as Starbucks opened their first store at Pike Place and effectively created what we now know as “Coffee Culture”. Love it or hate it, the brand helped spread that culture to the rest of the nation.

Thanks to 2basnob.com and ico.org for providing those facts.

Hand over Mr. Coffee and no one gets hurt

Finally, this isn’t a fun factoid, but it is a really strange story that should help break the ice around the barbeque this weekend: a woman in Lincoln, Nebraska, has been cited on suspicion of holding a Mr. Coffee coffee pot hostage.

Kyra Kinkade, 54, was upset with her niece, Katie Flood, after Kinkade spent a week house-sitting and watching Flood’s dogs while she was away. Kinkade expected to be paid for the house/dog sitting gig and took Flood’s Mr. Coffee hostage when she wasn’t compensated, leaving a ransom note for Flood to find when she returned home.

“My bill is $48.00. Thats what kenneling them would cost,” the note reads, grammar issues and all. “You will get your coffee pot back as soon as I recieve (sic) the cash.”

Kinkade’s formal citation has been for misdemeanor larceny involved with allegedly stealing the pot. The coffee pot is estimated to cost around $10 and there’s no word on whether it’s been allowed to call Flood to tell her it’s all right.

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