SeeCalifornia.com

380 million cups are consumed every day in America’s $40 billion+ industry. But prior to arriving in California, coffee beans hopscotched across 4 continents and crossed 3 oceans before landing on the Pacific Coast, according to Monika Trobits, author of “Bay Area Coffee-A Stimulating History,” one of the most comprehensive and fascinating books ever written on coffee.

Trobits, a New Yorker-turned San Franciscan, says there isn’t another American region that loves its coffee more than San Francisco and the Bay Area, where coffee drinkers got their first major jolt during the California Gold Rush of the 1850s.

One hundred years later in 1952, San Francisco’s infatuation with the beverage was still going strong when Buena Vista Saloon became the birthplace of America’s Irish Coffee. San Francisco Chronicle Travel Writer Stanton Delaplane told the establishment’s owner, Jack Koeppler, about an incredibly delicious coffee drink he enjoyed at an airport in Ireland. The two pals teamed up to reproduce the rich, velvety Irish Coffee (which includes whiskey and cream). Marilyn Monroe loved it and Buena Vista’s Irish Coffee still thrills people to this day at the legendary bar & grill by Powell-Hyde Cable Car route.

Read Craig MacDonald’s book review…>