PR pros, here’s the amount of coffee that could kill you

When I was working for an agency a few years ago, there was one of those big boxes of Corner Bakery coffee that was left after some big meeting. I don’t remember whether we dared our brave co-worker or if he had boasted that he could finish the entire thing by the following morning.

One thing led to another, and we had collected $100 from various sources who were willing to pay our friend to drink a box of few-day-old coffee in a matter of, oh, 12 or so hours.

He immediately launched into gulping cups of the stuff and while he was on the train heading home after work, began to feel sick. Very sick. So sick, in fact, that our co-worker ended up spending the night in the hospital due to caffeine intoxication.

We all learned a valuable lesson that day: You can get sick from drinking too much coffee. (And $100 is far to small a reward for something that could land you in the hospital.)