Jordan Bolker
Staff Writer
Sources of caffeine, mainly coffee and energy drinks, have become a norm in the way that North Central College students function throughout the day.
It is not uncommon to find students across the campus with a well-known Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts cup filled with lattes and frappucinos. No matter if it’s early in the morning as the sun continues to rise or late at night before a jumbo, coffee beans continue to grind up in brewers to satisfy caffeine cravers.
Another source of caffeine, on the other hand, is also on the rise as a favorite to students. Popular energy drinks like Monster, Red Bull and Mountain Dew Kickstart are quicker ways to indulge artificial juices without waiting in line behind impatient businessmen.
No matter if it’s warm espresso or chilled, energy-enhanced fruit juice, students all around have different preferences on how to survive the unforgiveable Monday’s. I surveyed 100 students on campus and 78 percent of the students said that they preferred coffee to energy drinks as their choice of beverage to stay awake throughout the day.
The majority of coffee-lovers then said they chose Starbucks as their go-to brand for a ‘pick me up.’ But why is coffee always the head honcho when there are still millions of energy drinkers out there?
68 percent of those students who preferred coffee said it’s mainly the taste that triggers the addiction, while others have said that coffee provides more energy and a sense of sophistication when walking around with the ubiquitous Starbucks cup than a tin can of Red Bull. But all journalist Bruce Horovitz could say in his recent USA Today article is that Starbucks, the top dog of coffee sellers, is just simply “too damn good… (and) it makes money hand over fist,” (Horovitz).
But who can blame all coffee sellers for exceeding in their equalization of customer satisfaction and aggressive marketing? It’s not a surprise that rewards programs are installed in the marketing world of top-sellers in coffee such as Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts where free items like drinks and food are given to brand loyal customers through a point system so long as they keep purchasing their coffee.
Being the loyal Starbucks consumer that I am, I have obtained my Gold Rewards Card, which lets me have special deals like 50 percent off a pastry or bonus points for purchasing a specific espresso on a certain date. As long as I continue purchasing from Starbucks, I am entitled to all the incentives that Gold Card members receive.
Energy drinks, on the other hand, bring out a less sophistication, but in a unique, rebellious entitlement. The combination of juice and energy bubbles can take more time for college students to adapt to the taste, but can result into an addiction.
Unlike coffee, which is stereotypically seen as a drink for those who wear business clothing or backpacks around their shoulders, energy drinks are shown for more of the rebellious, athletic careers such as dirt biking, extreme water and snow sports and racecar driving. Red Bull and Monster Energy are just two of the famous energy drink brands that sponsor these sports, such as the Winter X Games, the 2015 Monster Energy Supercross and the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup.
So, why does the other 22 percent of college students prefer energy drinks as their choice? 15 of those students chose “taste” as the primary reason and “obtaining more energy” followed suit. While coffee contains a bitter flavor without the extra bursts of syrups, sugars and powdered creams, energy drinks contains no bitterness and a fruiter blend of juices and other artificial energy kickers that we may or may not want to know about.
However, it as well becomes a go-to drink for those students that are in a hurry to class and cannot wait in line for their coffee beverage to be made. Sometimes grabbing a Mountain Dew Kickstart right before a long night of your jumbo can be just what you need when you must find some energy pronto. And depending on how the settlement goes for Red Bull, which broadly states that it does not, in fact, “give you wings,” we could all be coming home to a package full of $15 worth of Red Bull.
No matter what the brand is, which large events they sponsor every year or how much profit they make in a day, coffee shot across energy drinks by a long shot as college students’ preferred beverage to enhance artificial energy through syrups and sugars.
During the rest of the winter, this trend may continue with embracing the warm steam of the Starbucks cup. But during the summer, it’s all about the ice cold bubbles of the Dubble Bubble-metallic flavor of Red Bull. Whatever the choice, it’s no doubt that college students at North Central and the rest of the United States thrive on automatic energy boosters to make it through yet another Monday.
