Written by: emily andrade
Students gathered around tables, chatted with friends and sipped freshly brewed coffee Friday afternoon at one of Coffee at UMD’s weekly socials.
The student organization hosts coffee socials every Friday, inviting anyone in the University of Maryland community to stop by for free specialty coffee, to study or to meet new people. Each week features different beans and brewing methods, with locations and menus announced on the club’s Instagram account.
Coffee at UMD aims to create a welcoming “third space” for students while introducing them to specialty coffee, said club cooperation lead and junior computer engineering major Ian Tran.
At Friday’s social, club members served vanilla lattes featuring beans from Vigilante Coffee and homemade vanilla syrup.
Tran said the club helped introduce him to specialty coffee and taught him how different brewing methods can affect flavor.
“I’ve had a little bit of exposure into what specialty coffee is, but recently, when I joined this club, I really got into learning how to brew it and how to enjoy it more,” Tran said.
The club’s focus on learning and experimentation has also attracted students with prior coffee experience.
Anya Powell, a sophomore biology major and a club barista, said she worked at a coffee shop in high school but became more interested in coffee through the organization’s emphasis on specialty brewing.
“This club is a lot more focused on specialty coffees, so it’s nice actually learning the theory behind why everything happens and what variables to change to make something better or worse,” Powell said. “I’ve made a lot of friends here, and it’s a really good community… Now I kind of feel like I’m a coffee snob, which I did not want to be.”
Through weekly socials, club members hope to make specialty coffee more accessible while creating a space for students to connect over a shared interest.