Coffee is something college students need to survive a long day of classes. It is also a favored beverage when it comes to relaxing on campus with friends.
For all sorts of reasons, college students depend on a good cup of coffee to get them through the day, but it isn’t always a good cup.
What’s disappointing about coffee at UH is that its quality does not compare to other places around Houston. There’s about to be an awakening in Houston, and college students will be able to taste it.
In the past few weeks, Houston’s coffee movement has shifted into a different gear.
Houston hotspot The Coffee Groundz hosted a charity latte art competition organized by local barista and entrepreneur David Buehrer. The owner and founder of Tuscany Premium Coffee, Buehrer has been watching the coffee scene grow for some time.
The ‘quality coffee’ movement is only a fraction of a larger movement, and it isn’t strictly about coffee. The importance of artisan coffee goes beyond competing with the likes of Starbucks.
‘The movement’s importance to Houston is only a slow transitional phase of a larger food movement in Houston,’ Buehrer said.
Buehrer’s perspective includes growth and changing palettes in food as well as coffee.
‘It’s understanding what goes into your body and the importance of quality for what you consume,’ Buehrer said.
Some baristas follow their dreams of opening coffee shops or becoming coffee roasters. Communication junior Jon Redding has worked at Starbucks for three years and has experienced the coffee movement himself.
‘Large corporations like Starbucks strive to have the best product on the market, but it’s near impossible to be the biggest and the best,’ Redding said.
Through relationships with his friends coupled with his work experience, Redding has seen the way quality and passion can make coffee a career and an art form, not just a cup of energy in the morning.
‘Smaller, independent shops like Tuscany Premium Coffee and Catalina (Coffee) are able to provide the extra experience by focusing on every aspect of the beverage to assure the highest quality,’ Redding said.
Shops such as Catalina Coffee, located on Washington Avenue, and Tuscany Premium Coffee, located inside Greenway Plaza, are spots that are paving the way for the exciting evolution of a drink that is of the utmost importance to college students.
Andrew Taylor is an economics junior and may be reached at [email protected]
