A story circulating on social media claims that President Theodore Roosevelt drank a gallon of coffee per day, or about 40 cups. Noted biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin is often cited as the source of the later claim: "One of my friends thought he drank 40 cups of coffee a day."
The estimate of a gallon appears to come from National Park Service historians based on Roosevelt's well-documented habit of drinking coffee throughout the day. His son, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., said the president's coffee cup was "more in the nature of a bathtub." While there is ample evidence that Roosevelt drank large quantities of coffee, there is no hard evidence supporting the claim that he consumed a gallon per day.
Roosevelt may have begun drinking strong black coffee at an early age, possibly as a treatment for his childhood asthma, although evidence for this is limited. What is clear is that he was known for consuming a great deal of coffee throughout his life.
During most of Roosevelt's lifetime, the only commercially available coffee varietal was Arabica. Robusta (Coffea canephora) was identified in 1897 by Belgian botanist and plant collector Émile Laurent after being discovered growing wild in the Congo. Robusta did not become commercially significant until the late 1910s and did not enter widespread use in the United States until the 1950s.
As president (1901-1909), Roosevelt achieved several notable accomplishments:
Trust-Busting: Used the Sherman Antitrust Act to challenge monopolies and powerful corporate trusts, helping increase competition.
Square Deal: Promoted consumer protection, corporate regulation, and fair treatment for workers.
Conservation Leader: Created the U.S. Forest Service and protected approximately 230 million acres of public land.
National Parks and Monuments: Established five national parks and used the Antiquities Act to create numerous national monuments.
Panama Canal: Helped secure the route and begin construction of the Panama Canal, significantly improving global trade.
Nobel Peace Prize: Won the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for helping negotiate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
Imagine if he had been drinking Robusta, which contains roughly twice as much caffeine as Arabica.