It’s 8:30 on a Tuesday morning in Las Cruces. University Avenue is swarmed with morning traffic and pedestrians hurrying to their classes. Although they are walking fast, the expressions on their faces emotionless and their eyes are tried and heavy from supporting the purple-ish, puffy bags that lie beneath them. Although the students at NMSU have different majors, friend groups, and hobbies, you can find one common things amongst them all during this time of the day. Almost all of the students are holding a coffee in their hand.
Coffee has become more to college students than just a source of energy. Coffee is now recognized as crucial ingredient to a morning routine for over half of the college students in the U.S. The internet is filled with memes that talk about how important coffee is to us. Some coffee drinkers (myself included) opt for more than one cup a day. I hadn’t made this realization until I made my way to my Her Campus chapter meeting last Thursday. I couldn’t see how I was going to be able to sit through our first meeting of the semester without another White Chocolate Mocha. I was tired, yes I’m always tired, but was I craving the energy boost the coffee would give me, or just the coffee and having it in my hand? I began discussing with some of the girls how I really need to watch how much money I spend at Starbucks. After going through my bank statement I realized that I charge a coffee to my card almost every morning, even on weekends just to get ready for work.
To get a better insight, and to look at it from a more psychological point of view, I began to look at how coffee rose to fame and see why it might be more than just a preference in taste. Coffee was discovered in Ethiopia, and was thought to have medical properties. After being traded for several decades coffee had made its way to Europe. There, it turned in to a breakfast beverage, replacing other drinks. It wasn’t until the 1700’s that coffee had become popular in this area, before our country had even begun to colonize. Now, the United States has fallen in love with Coffee. According the Huffington Post’s article; America’s Coffee Obsession: Fun Facts that Prove We’re Hooked, the United States consumes more coffee than any other country in the world. Who is doing all of this coffee drinking? As the millennials have grown older and started to form their own tastes and preferences, they have become the most avid coffee drinkers.
When looking through your Instagram or Snapchat in the morning on say, a Tuesday, one of the most common posts will be someone’s morning Starbucks, or their blue coffee mug on their desk. Not only has drinking coffee become a trend but posting about drinking coffee has become quite popular all on its own. Gabrielle Bosche suggested in an interview for The Washington Post, that “Coffee has everything millennials love: status, experience and personalization” and is she really wrong? Bosche is a hiring and selling consultant that works for companies. Her focus is millennials. The article was written by Thomas Heath and discussed how millennials have impacted the coffee industry. Coffee has become a trend amongst millennials. Consider the amount of exposure we get daily when it comes to coffee. There is a Starbucks around every corner, it is in every morning scene of every commercial or movie and our social feeds are flooded with memes and pictures of it every day. It’s not hard to understand why we’re always craving it. The caffeine rush also provides the little boost of energy needed to get through the morning. With our busy lives it is almost necessary to have that little bit of coffee for some motivation. It has been speculated that millennials are the most active and busy generation.
Bosche points out in her statement that we are also all about the experience. Coffee shops have become more and more popular with each passing day, some of them almost rendering their own fame. Starbucks for example has put a huge stamp on the industry. Not only do they have an assorted menu of delicious coffees that you can add to or modify to make your own, but they personalize your cup. Baristas do this for efficiency when handing out orders, but Starbucks has become quite popular when it comes to drawing little pictures or personalizing your cup other than writing just your name. Starbucks isn’t the only popular coffee however, smaller local coffee shops have grown in popularity as well. Baristas have begun to wow people with their creative “latte art” which features decorative pictures made out of foam gently placed on top of your coffee. Definitely something worth Instagramming. There are also a variety of ways to brew your own coffee. It is possible to access coffee beans from practically wherever you choose and brewing coffee has become easier and more personalized than ever with single serve brewing systems like the Keurig. Coffee cups can have pictures put on them, you can make your own with friends or family at a local pottery store.
Coffee has just become cool because we have made it more of an experience now. We get to share with everyone what we like about drinking coffee, from where we get it, to who we share it with. Fall is coming up, people will be making the transition from iced coffees to warm coffees. I actually prefer warm coffee and can’t wait to be doing my holiday shopping with some leggings on a warm double shot Caramel Macchiato in my hands. And don’t worry I won’t forget to snap you all pictures so you can share in my wonderful experience.