It’s the smell of a new morning. It’s the taste of energy. It’s the color of a long, sleepless night scared away by the sound of the alarm clock. The sound of this word, if you say it very slowly as if you have just awaken, makes your lips curve into a small smile.
Coffee.
For many students, this is the first word muttered in the morning. It’s the goal, the aim, the greatest desire. For some, it’s a desperate need.
“With enough coffee everything’s is possible,” said Julia Urbanovich ’09. “I’m an instant human. Just add coffee.”
For many people this addiction develops at college. A cup of coffee to wake you up. Another one to get you going. Two or three more between the lectures. And who knows how many to get you through the night before the exams.
For others, coffee means nothing.
“I hate coffee. I don’t like the smell of it. I don’t like the taste of it,” said Danielle Magidov ’08. “I think I’m the only one of my friends who doesn’t drink it in the morning… How do I get up? It’s very hard for me.”
Watch the students as they crawl out of their dorms for an early morning class. With headphones on to keep them awake, students start their day in search of energy. Their search leads them to one of the four oases if coffee on campus.
9 a.m. First floor of Canisius. The line stretches from the counter to the doors of the elevator, filled with yawning people, eyes half-shut. Every time someone leaves the line – hands clutching the cherished paper cup, a look of true bliss on their face – two more join the queue. Slowly, sleepily, it is moving.
12 p.m. Jazzman’s Café. All seats are taken. About three cups per one small round table. Bending over their books, as they turn the pages, people take small sips from the cups.
“Espresso, cappuccino, macchiato, ice coffee,” said Maria Colon, a Jazzman’s Café employee. “Students are crazy about coffee.”
2 p.m. Outside the BCC. See how many people hurry up to their classes – one hand clutching a bag, the other one tenderly holding a paper cup with a familiar green and blue patter, that somehow reminds you of the Dining Hall.
7 p.m. Dolan School of Business.
“Three hours of class,” said Sebastian Weber ’07, a business student. “I think I am going to die.” Then his eyes fall on the stand with familiar Green Mountain cups towering on it. “Or maybe not,” he says, hurrying off to the paper cup mountains.
82 percent of adults in the U.S. drink coffee daily to get their fix of caffeine, the most widely used mood-altering drug in the world reports The Herald News.
However, the health effects of coffee are under debate. According to a Harvard Medical School study, the drink may reduce the chance of gallstones and colon cancer – if taken in moderation.
Researchers of Institution of Scientific Information on Coffee have also found that among more than 12,000 middle-aged adults, those who drank four or more cups of coffee each day had a lower risk of developing type II diabetes than those who rarely had a cup.
Those drinking more than two cups, or 200 milligrams of caffeine, however, enter the realm of increased anxiety and potential panic attacks.
After a cup of their favorite brew, coffee addicts will be in a good mood to share their favorite sayings about coffee, like “I found my perfect man: Mr. Coffee.”
“Is there life before coffee?” asked Darling Garcia ’07. “There is no life before coffee. There is life after coffee.”
Leave a Reply