Time was when getting into the Guinness Book of World Records really meant something. You had to walk 130 kilometres with a milk bottle balanced on your head. Or keep on teasing the ladies with your Hot Stuff routine well into your sixties in order to qualify as the world’s Oldest Male Stripper. Now, it seems, all you have to do is drink a cup of coffee. At least we know that we all can be heroes.
Pulverising the previous record of 2,620 cups, AMT Coffee distributed 4,585 complimentary coffees to bleary-eyed commuters in Liverpool Street Station yesterday morning as part of the World’s Largest Coffee Morning. That’s 4,585 people who began their days, perhaps, by thinking the 28th of February an unextraordinary Thursday but soon found themselves contributing to history. We can only assume that they went right on contributing to history by next participating in the World’s Largest Run on the Loo.
Dubious though the world record distinction may be, the World’s Largest Coffee Morning was a gimmick with good intentions. AMT, which promotes itself as the only UK coffee company to sell 100 percent certified Fairtrade coffee, organised the event to promote Fairtrade Fortnight, running until the 9th of March, and will make a donation equivalent to the cost of all those coffees to Macmillan Cancer Support. Promoting fair trade, supporting cancer care, alleviating morning fatigue – all causes we can get behind.
Image from historicist’s photostream via the Londonist Flickr pool
