The Student Room Group

Why is coffee so popular? What makes it so special?

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Reply 60
I genuinely think Central pErk in Friends is partly responsible for the amount of coffee shops
Reply 61
Original post by blahblahblah1
The main thing is probably caffeine = quick and easy boost
then the fact it comes in so many interesting forms and can be mixed with loads of flavours :biggrin:
I also think its quite a social thing too, in the past people would probably meet up at the pub for a drink whereas that seems to be dying in popularity (credit crunch, health warnings, the fact alcohol is cheaper in the supermarkets etc) so people probably opt to meet at costa/starbucks etc instead. Then theres those people who think they look like a WAG or celeb of some sort by walking around in huge sunglasses with a starbucks takeaway cup in their hand...


Surely if they wanted a status drink they would have BVLGARI bottled water or a VitaCoco (coconut water) carton. I think the notion that coffee is a sophisticated drink is somewhat archaic. People drink it because they like it surely.
Original post by El Nombre

Not sure if comment was sarcastic...

I like my coffee strong and black. The Dutch have the right idea, milk coffee is referred to as 'koffie verkeerd' (literally: wrong coffee). I started drinking it at uni for the caffeine, and now my kitchen is swamped in coffee paraphernalia. There's no room to cook! :bigsmile:


The Dutch were so darn right and no I wasn't being sarcastic, though a little out there... I meant, for me... decaf is all I need heh
Reply 63
Original post by Mark85
We have a grinder at home and aside from the freshness - it means you can buy all sorts of coffee beans to try. I often just drink it middle eastern style i.e. cooked into the water and unfiltered.

Funnily enough, I was in Turkey recently and every time I tried to get coffee and wanted the proper cezve stuff - they were always shouting at you that they had nescafe as if you would be really impressed. Seems a lot of guys over there prefer nescafe to the proper gear (or maybe they just clocked that I was a westener and assumed that was what I would be after).


I use jacc's beans in some crazy flavours
http://www.jaccscoffee.co.uk/ would reccommend them, they do instant too but ive not tried those...
Well nescafe is easier I suppose!
I think that coffee is a student's best friend :smile:
there's a depth of flavour to coffee that's missing for me in tea. i like mine extra extra strong, 2 heaped teaspoons and these teaspoons are BIG not little thimble thingies, and sweet and black.

i only drink 2 cups of coffee a day tho and that's always in the morning, else i'd zombie.
I rather do to the pub than sit in a Starbucks.

I know its popular but I really can't stand the smell myself, there was a coffee bar at a old college I went to and I stood outside every time because I couldn't bare it. I saw the kind of people sitting in there, all crossing there legs trying to look intelligent.The guy behind the counter is always some twerp with floppy hair.

In the pub its more of a laugh, few beers, go on the quiz machine, have a flirt. I'm not the right person for coffee.
Reply 67
Because its hot, it tastes good, and it gives you energy, and its ubiquitous and easily available.

I don't go into coffee shops though, especially branded multinationals like starbucks. Why pay over £2 for something you can make at home for 20p?
Reply 68
Can't say i'm a massive fan of coffee, but it keeps me awake at work
Reply 69
Original post by py0alb

I don't go into coffee shops though, especially branded multinationals like starbucks. Why pay over £2 for something you can make at home for 20p?


Because you are renting their chairs and table for an hour or so as a meet up venue.

Why branded multinationals? Because they have obliterated half of the small British coffee shops off the map. Anyway, I always find that cost aside - Costa does a decent cup of joe.
(edited 11 years ago)
Hi..:smile:
In my opinion,Drinking coffee has become so addictive that people will even queue up to be served their favorite variation, be it latte, espresso, mocha or a plain Americana. One chain of coffee shops sells at least forty different blends of coffee from all over the world. There are blends from Latin America, Africa, Arabia, Asia and even Europe, as well as mixed blends and decaffeinated versions.:smile:
Original post by PaperBoy
It tastes good.

One frappuccino from Starbucks makes life so perfect.

I don't even think that qualifies as coffee tbh
Reply 72
Original post by Mark85
It is just the tea of our generation.


Tea is the tea of our generation :wink:
Reply 73
Original post by gingerrama
I don't even think that qualifies as coffee tbh


OMG! What is wrong with you!? What coffee do you drink then?
Original post by PaperBoy
OMG! What is wrong with you!? What coffee do you drink then?

Coffee that hasn't had a crapton of sugar and ice and cream added to it, generally :erm:
Because it's absolutely lovely! I only have like 1 cup a day, and caffeine doesn't really have much effect on me (I'd need a double to feel significantly more energised) so I wouldn't care if it was decaf. It's just such a nice drink to have in the morning.
Reply 76
Original post by tallen90
Tea is the tea of our generation :wink:


Let me explain what I mean. I was talking with my dad about this and he was saying how when he was my age - he would have been embarrassed to go out and ask for coffee because barely anyone drank it and it would have been seen as being a bit lah-di-dah - the equivalent of asking for a pina colada in you local.

Nowadays though, it would seem that more young people are drinking coffee than tea. Amongst certain people, tea is seen as being quaint or old fashioned.

There is definitely a generational gap on the old coffee vs. tea issue.
Reply 77
I just came up with idea that coffee is so popular because people can't find suitable tea. I didn't make any research yet how popular is the loose tea in UK (because I brought some from my home country which doesn't produce herbal tea, lol) and Tesco Metro doesn't have much choices of loose tea. However, different loose tea tastes really different. I mean, different coffee also is not the same, but it can't beat the variety of tea. My favourite ones are Earl Grey and Chinese Gunpowder, but occasionally I buy random Indian black tea, white tea when it's hot outside (YES, tea and especially white tea helps you to reduce the temperature of your body) or Sencha.

Advantage of tea is that it's not addictive, but it also simulates your body (mainly black and green teas) and it doesn't affect your teeth colour so much. That's why people who enjoys both coffee and smoking have (less or more) yellow teeth. Moreover, tea also can be drunk at any time (maybe not so strong tea/green tea before sleep, though) and it can be as a part of meditation.

By the way, are tea rooms popular here? I have seen some of them, but I didn't try them yet. I've been invited to a tea room in Czech Republic and I enjoyed that atmosphere of pub without selling alcohol drinks. You simply buy some tea, you get a thermo bottle and two special mugs one for preparing tea, other one for drinking tea (so you can control both the hotness and strength of tea by yourself). It should be the same in UK, I hope.
Reply 78
Original post by Mark85
Let me explain what I mean. I was talking with my dad about this and he was saying how when he was my age - he would have been embarrassed to go out and ask for coffee because barely anyone drank it and it would have been seen as being a bit lah-di-dah - the equivalent of asking for a pina colada in you local.

Nowadays though, it would seem that more young people are drinking coffee than tea. Amongst certain people, tea is seen as being quaint or old fashioned.

There is definitely a generational gap on the old coffee vs. tea issue.


Ah, I get what you mean. I guess it has something to do with Starbucks and the like - first the hipsters went to Starbucks, and then everyone else followed :tongue:
Reply 79
Original post by PPaulius
I just came up with idea that coffee is so popular because people can't find suitable tea. I didn't make any research yet how popular is the loose tea in UK (because I brought some from my home country which doesn't produce herbal tea, lol) and Tesco Metro doesn't have much choices of loose tea. However, different loose tea tastes really different. I mean, different coffee also is not the same, but it can't beat the variety of tea. My favourite ones are Earl Grey and Chinese Gunpowder, but occasionally I buy random Indian black tea, white tea when it's hot outside (YES, tea and especially white tea helps you to reduce the temperature of your body) or Sencha.

Advantage of tea is that it's not addictive, but it also simulates your body (mainly black and green teas) and it doesn't affect your teeth colour so much. That's why people who enjoys both coffee and smoking have (less or more) yellow teeth. Moreover, tea also can be drunk at any time (maybe not so strong tea/green tea before sleep, though) and it can be as a part of meditation.

By the way, are tea rooms popular here? I have seen some of them, but I didn't try them yet. I've been invited to a tea room in Czech Republic and I enjoyed that atmosphere of pub without selling alcohol drinks. You simply buy some tea, you get a thermo bottle and two special mugs one for preparing tea, other one for drinking tea (so you can control both the hotness and strength of tea by yourself). It should be the same in UK, I hope.


That's pretty interesting. Are you from the Czech Republic then? You seem to be something of a tea expert :wink:

Unfortunately, I've never seen any tea rooms like you describe in England. Tea rooms around here are more like cafes and probably don't have a large range of loose tea. However, if you go into a city there's probably specialist tea shops which sell that kind of thing :smile:

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