A marching band, a horse, a seven-foot-tall blended ice drink mascot and a lot of caffeinated early-risers: It must be Sept. 29. Oh, Sept. 29, for the uninitiated, happens to be National Coffee Day. And no one celebrates the bean-centric holiday quite like Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

National Coffee Day is to coffee-drinkers what St. Patrick’s Day is to drinky-drinkers. One difference between the two, if you’re stumped, is that the coffee holiday is celebrated in the morning whereas the other is celebrated all day. The former also involves less fighting and vomiting if you’re keeping score.

For this Super Bowl Sunday of caffeine — held on a workday, of course — the University of Southern California marching band performed in front of Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s flagship location, which also happens to be its 1,000th store, at 5700 Wilshire Blvd. USC’s beloved Traveler was also on site, but did not do any laps around the block, as he was no doubt still tired from the many laps at Sun Devil Stadium after each Trojan touchdown.

Where was I? (Sorry, haven’t had my coffee yet…) Oh yes, the festivities. The coffee chain’s larger-than-life frozen blended beverage mascot (let’s start a campaign to get this guy a name because that’s a mouthful) handed out a $100 gift certificate to its 100th customer of the day — an attractive young lady whose name I didn’t get, so sue me.

Like the actual Super Bowl, many people come to watch but most participate from the comfort of their own sofa. In fact, coffee-drinking has become so popular that it’s now a year-round sport, and the fact is, you don’t have to wait until Sept. 29 to enjoy an annual latte, true story. If you’re not currently a coffee-drinker, you’re never too young to start. [NOTE: the editors at LaLaScoop strongly disagree with the previous claim and believe that caffeine products are inappropriate for young children.]

So, drink up and enjoy the Buzzz. And in 364 days, celebrate National Coffee Day 2016 as a coffee aficionado.

Scott Bridges is an L.A.-based journalist who has worked as a police-beat reporter, a community newspaper editor, and a food and travel writer. He currently works as a freelance writer, contributing to The Huffington Post and Bizjournals.com, among other sites. He is a native Californian who lives on the Westside.