{"id":4815,"date":"2021-05-12T13:23:50","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T18:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/?p=4801"},"modified":"2021-05-12T13:23:50","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T18:23:50","slug":"college-students-thrive-on-coffee-at-concordia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/?p=4815","title":{"rendered":"College Students Thrive on Coffee at Concordia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On every college campus, coffee can be viewed as a necessity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

CUC\u2019s campus has two locations to purchase coffee: the Cougar Den and the library cafe. The Cougar Den features a full Starbucks menu, giving students a variety of options such as frappuccinos, macchiatos, and regular hot and iced coffees. The library cafe, on the other hand, features a selection of bottled and canned coffee drinks, as well as generic hot coffee.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to these on-campus coffee options, there are several other coffee shops in the River Forest and Oak Park area that provide college students with their needed caffeine boost. In the vicinity of campus, students can buy coffee from 7-Eleven, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, and a handful of local roasters in Oak Park such as L!ve Cafe, Fairgrounds Coffee & Tea, and Courageous Bakery & Cafe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Students often find themselves debating whether their preferred coffee comes from Starbucks or Dunkin. These two chains seem to be the most popular choices among students and are both close to campus. There is a Starbucks located on campus in the Cougar Den, but there is no Dunkin on campus. Rather, students can find Dunkin locations both north and south of school on Harlem Ave.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a walk-by survey completed on April 26 with students and staff around Concordia\u2019s campus, there seemed to be a close debate between preference on Starbucks and Dunkin with Dunkin ultimately winning 21 to 19 votes. When initially asking people around campus, it appeared as though there was a correlation between younger people preferring Dunkin. Of the 40 people questioned, the first 12 votes for Dunkin came from students, whereas the first nine votes for Starbucks came from staff or faculty members. After these first 21 votes, the seemingly similar viewpoints didn\u2019t match up quite as well. The next 19 votes varied, with an increasing number of students preferring Starbucks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many people who preferred Starbucks said that it had a better ambiance and the coffee isn\u2019t as sweet, whereas people who prefer Dunkin often attributed it to the fact that it is cheaper and has better food. \u201cDunkin is cheaper and it honestly just tastes better,\u201d said Lisa Lubben, CUC student. \u201cI think it\u2019s sweeter, so it\u2019s less harsh.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In contrast, head women\u2019s basketball coach Lauren Martin put in her vote for Starbucks. \u201cI think their coffee houses are quieter and they play better music, rather than the loud sounds at Dunkin,\u201d said Martin. She also backed up her opinion by saying that she prefers Starbucks\u2019s dark roast and double shot because Dunkin\u2019s coffee is too sweet and sugary. When comparing food at both places Martin said, \u201cMy kids love the cake pops at Starbucks, but I go to Dunkin for donuts because it\u2019s cheaper than the cake pops.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Although these two chain coffee places provoke an intense debate between those who enjoy it, many students note that they\u2019re thankful for having a Starbucks located on campus. The on-campus Starbucks expanded two years ago when the school upgraded the Cougar Den\u2019s food services to accommodate larger numbers of students. \u201cMy freshman and sophomore year there wasn\u2019t a full Starbucks like there is now,\u201d said former CUC student Annika Rae. \u201cThey had a Starbucks sign hanging up, but you could only get hot and iced coffee from there. There were no specialty drinks or anything like that.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While the population at Concordia has a divided opinion on which major chain provides better coffee, the general consensus is that everyone is glad to have multiple options on campus to get their daily caffeine. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":4841,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[163,213],"class_list":["post-4815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-life-culture","tag-coffee","tag-cuc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}