Strange Brew

Here's an amusing factoid about that second famous Strange Brew (Coffee) compliments of Janet and Greta Podleski's entertaining Eat, Shrink and Be Merry, a cookbook by the ladies who wrote Looneyspoons:

Feeling a little weak in the bean after your third cup of coffee? No wonder. In nature, caffeine is designed to cause confusion in the brain. It's true about the brew! Caffeine is actually used by the coffee plant as a pesticide--a nerve-warfare chemical that wards off predators. Caffeine inhibits the nervous system and the memory of the coffee plant's enemies (insects) so they lose their art of camouflage, become less alert, and less able to protect themselves against their own predators (animals). We humans harvest the same caffeine-containing coffee beans, brew them, and drink them for pleasure. Are we stunned?