College Baristas get to Talking about Coffee

Coffee seems to be a daily necessity for most college students. It would be hard to imagine college life without a little kick of caffeine to start off the day, or a Red Bull at night to stay up and finish an essay that almost every student procrastinated to do. Students and baristas enrolled at Northeast talk about coffee and caffeine.

Student Elly Krause is employed at Starbucks. She said “I love coffee. Caffeine wakes me up and gives me plenty of energy.” Krause is a nursing student and works part time on top of school. “I find myself staying up super late studying, and then I have to wake up early the next morning for classes. The days I drink coffee I notice it isn’t so hard to stay awake in class.”

While working at Starbucks, Krause had gained knowledge about coffee. “Personally, I do not notice any negative effects of caffeine on me, but I have noticed when some people don’t get their daily dose of caffeine, they can get a little grumpy.” Since Krause has been a barista for a while now, she knows the menu in and out. “Although I work at Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts has the best coffee. An iced caramel macchiato with oat milk is my favorite drink.”

Avianna Azure is also a nursing student employed at Starbucks, “Yes, I love coffee. I think it works well for me. I crave coffee the most when I first wake up, it’s a great way to start my day.” Azure knows quite a bit about coffee and loves to recommend new drinks, “I would recommend someone who hasn’t tried coffee to start out with either an iced mocha or white mocha from Starbucks. The sweeter the drink, the better.”

Hannah Borgmann is also a coworker to Azure and Elly, she is a freshman at NECC. “Coffee affects me because it takes up a big part of my job. I go for coffee when I wake up or before I study to keep me energized.” Borgmann said. Although most people say they enjoy the effects of coffee and caffeine, it doesn’t always have the best side effects.

“I slowed down on drinking so much caffeine because it eventually became addicting. I used to drink coffee daily until I noticed I was dependent on caffeine to avoid headaches.” As most people know, caffeine can be an extremely addictive substance. “Overcoming my addiction was not a simple task and working at a coffee shop didn’t help my case. I was strong and overcame the addiction by listening to my head instead of my stomach.” Hannah said, “sometimes to avoid such a large intake of caffeine, I get an iced chai with cinnamon. It’s my favorite drink at Starbucks.” Borgmann said.

Northeast’s campus has a Starbucks. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19, the coffee shop is temporarily closed. Sue Cummings, barista and a food service staff member, used to work at Starbucks on campus while it was open. Since Starbucks was temporarily closed, she was moved to the kitchen. “I really miss making coffee. My favorite part about being a barista at Northeast is meeting all the students and staff.” The campus’ coffee shop is opening next semester in August of 2021. “I liked working in the kitchen for the time being, but I’m excited to get back to my specialty of making coffee. I miss making caramel macchiatos.” Cummings said.

So be sure to stop by Starbucks on campus next semester! If you like, get a caramel macchiato to make a baristas day.