Here Are 5 Fun Facts About Coffee For National Coffee Day

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Woohoo! Today, September 29, 2013, is National Coffee Day. It's a day where we celebrate and drink coffee ... waitaminit. That's every day. Heck, what is National Coffee Day for, then?

How about some neat-o facts about coffee from Neatorama's archives while you're sipping that hot cup of joe?

1. Caffeine is the world's most popular psychoactive drug

In the United States alone, over 90% of adults are estimated to consume caffeine every day. The alkaloid (that's the chemical classification of caffeine - a group of naturally occurring chemical compound containing nitrogen) is present not only in coffee, but also in soft drinks and energy drinks, food, and even chewing gums.

What's inside a cup of coffee? You'd be surprised.
Love caffeine so much that you want coffee that's 200% more caffeinated than normal? We've got you covered.

2. Forget civet poop coffee, here comes elephant poop coffee!

By now, everybody knows that you can drink coffee processed from civet poop. But Neatoramanauts know something even better: coffee made from elephant poop. The Black Ivory Coffee aint' cheap though. It'll set you back $50 a cup.

3. A new way to "drink" coffee ...

Image: TLC

Is through your butt! A florida couple named Mike and Trina get their caffeine fix through the wrong end of their digestive systems: via coffee enemas.

4. Coffee ring formation is surprisingly complex

University of Pennsylvania's Department of Physics and Astronomy shared this video microscopy of the Coffee Ring Effect.

Wait, why did scientists even bothered to take that video anyhow? It's because scientists drink more coffee than anyone. They also probably spilled more coffee than anyone - well, enough anyhow that they bothered to investigate the physics of spilling coffee while walking.

5. Humans have been drinking coffee since the 15th century

And as this advertisement from 1652 (yep, 1652) said about coffee, "It is known by experience to be better then any other Drying Drink for People in years, or Children that have any running humors upon them, as the Kings Evil. &c."

Bonus Fact: Caffeine is plant's natural defense mechanism: it kills insects

Image: Annie Cavanagh and David McCarthy

You wouldn't know it from this gorgeous award-winning scanning electron micrograph by Annie Cavanagh and David McCarthy, but caffeine is pretty deadly ... to insects. Caffeine acts as a natural pesticide that paralyzes and kills certain insects that feed on the plant.

Check out more Neatorama posts about coffee (we've certainly got a LOT of them!) and coffee-related items on the NeatoShop.