There are over 87,000 drink combinations at Starbucks according to Woman’s Day Magazine. I often ask myself why I always get a skinny vanilla latte if I know that there are so many choices. The barista will ask what I want and I just say it, like it is some kind of script. Maybe it is a part of human nature, we all have our “regulars” so to speak, we all have our drinks that keep us going in the morning when we have a long day ahead of us.
Unfortunately, there are no Starbucks located directly on campus. But Terrapins are not robbed of their right to a morning filled with Starbucks coffee. At McKeldin Library, Footnotes café proudly brews Starbucks coffee, as well as the coffee shop at the Adele H. Stamp Student Union. With two to three stores opening everyday, I can’t help but wonder, why skip campus?
When current Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz brought the idea of Italian coffee shops to America, his bosses originally shot down his idea. Then he went to buy Starbucks himself and was able to infiltrate to the idea of the coffee experience being a community affair, not just for rushing, according to his book Onward.
Schutlz’s innovative idea is what made Starbucks something unlike anyone else has seen. At the University of Maryland, we are not really using the coffee experience to make friends but for something else: studying. Libraries, while very abundant on campus, just do not seem to appeal to as many people as Starbucks does.
The atmosphere is always calm, which is what makes it such a good place to study. At McKeldin Library, one can feel the hustle and bustle on the second floor but at Starbucks, students such as freshman, freshman Sydney Shale, believe that they can feel relaxed.
“Every day I get my caramel machiatto and sit at the Stamp coffee shop to catch up on reading in my textbooks.”
Shale is not the only one, in the mornings there is almost always a line of people waiting to get their coffee fix and there are rarely ever any seats available because there are so many students already there.
On college campus’ people are not always using their time to get coffee as an excuse to socialize like Howard had originally planned. We are taking Starbucks and making it a place to finish work and enjoy quiet time to study if our roommates are not providing study environments before our exams.
There is also the easy access to caffeine, which is what keeps people going throughout the day. Being able to get coffee at a moments notice is vital to a lot of college kids who did not get enough sleep the night before.
Although Howard never planned for Starbucks to turn into this sanctuary for students, I would definitely think that he would enjoy seeing the environment we have created all on our own. Students like the ones at the University of Maryland are revolutionizing the caffeinated coffee.