Coffee Drinkers Are Getting Younger
I can’t remember clearly when I began to not be able to get through the day without at least one cup (although I usually have two or three), but I figure it was around the time I turned eighteen.
All I really knew about coffee was that it contained caffeine. And between working full time, going to school full time, writing part time, and trying to have somewhat of a life in between, I needed all the upper I could.
I read a statistic that said the average coffee drinker spends almost 165 dollars a year on coffee. I spend about eight hundred. I stop every morning on my way to work and pay two dollars to be handed my Styrofoam cup. Every Monday I pick up a can of coffee during my food shopping which I drink throughout the week. Often times, I’ll have several cups of that coffee before I stop to get coffee on my way to work. It’s ridiculous.
The average coffee drinker drinks more than three cups a day. What we should be drinking three cups a day of is water. Something that is replenishing, something that is good for your skin and general well being. But no, we choose to drink something that is dehydrating and causes constipation.
Recently, a new trend of younger coffee drinkers has emerged. Americans are drinking coffee younger than ever before. With all the business about coffee stunting your growth (unless maybe you were trying to be a gymnast), parents tended to keep their children who hadn’t yet finished growing away from coffee.
However, coffee shops are becoming ever more popular with young people. Chances are if you show up to a coffee house on any given night your likely to hear a live band or a comedian. Are coffee shops catering to younger crowds?
At sixteen, you can’t yet get into a bar, but you can waltz into a coffee shop at all hours of the night. Many coffee shops have shelves and stacks full of board games and cards that you can use free of charge. Well almost free. The shops are hoping that the games will help you stick around and buy more coffee. And you know what? There’re right.
They seem the place to be for up and coming musical talent who tend to be too young to get into a bar. Therefore they play the coffee house and have all their friends in tow for a listen. Sure you’ll get the few who order hot chocolate or iced tea, but more and more are getting specialty drinks with shots of espresso and other goodies.
As adolescents, their coffee drinks are consisting mainly of sugar, hot fudge and the maybe the background flavor of coffee. But the caffeine and definitely the sugar are still there. It’s the healthiest thing they could be consuming, but I suppose it’s not the worst, either.
I’d bet anything that if I walked in Starbucks with a fourteen year old girl, she’d be right on the ball.
“I’ll have a tall caramel macchiato nonfat.”
And me. “I’ll have a large with milk and sugar.”
They’d probably kick me out. Someone should create a website on how to order at Starbucks. It’s a foreign world to me. I’ll just take Folgers. Thanks.
