COFFEE RATIONING

MONDAY, JULY 25: COFFEE RATIONING

Profile America for Monday, July 25. Imagine if you stopped by your favorite coffee shop on the way to work for your usual cup in the morning and found that coffee was rationed? For awhile during World War II, that was the case, as consumer hoarding caused coffee to be rationed. This week in 1943, President Roosevelt ended the program because imports had rebounded from their drop when the war began. Coffee is widely thought to have been introduced into America by Captain John Smith, one of the founders of the Jamestown Colony in Virginia. Consumption of coffee jumped after both the Boston Tea Party and the beginning of Prohibition. Now, the average American drinks nearly 24 gallons of coffee each year in all its forms -- regular and decaffeinated, as well as espresso and latte. Find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau on the Web at http://www.census.gov.