Leaving a warm, comfy, soft, bed in the morning for work or school is never easy. However, for many people, a morning cup of coffee is the motivating factor for getting up and seizing the day. Well, not just a regular cup of coffee, an iced, super-sized, Frappuccino with four pumps of caramel sauce, four pumps of mocha, three Splenda, blended, with sweet cold foam and topped with a cinnamon-stick. I mean who doesn’t love a milkshake, sorry, a good cup of coffee, at 8 a.m.?
I feel that we have gotten too loose with what we are classifying as coffee. Large coffee chains have convinced us that we need flavorings to make coffee taste good. I believe that coffee is an art form. Starting from the way that it is grown, picked, blended, roasted, packaged and brewed, minor changes in any step of the process yields a very different cup of coffee.
Many manufacturers tend to skip over the artful process and cut corners to save money. They do this by using cheaper beans, rushing the roasting process or using poor packaging resulting in a stale, bitter and burnt tasting bean. Thus, sugar has been the go-to solution for fixing a cheap cup of improperly curated coffee.
By contrast, coffee which has been properly picked, roasted and brewed needs no additives, syrups or sugar dust. True coffee can be sweet, rich, and flavorful all on its own. A coffee bean’s flavor occurs due to the location of where a bean is grown. Location dictates its acidity and flavor, which can include notes of blueberry, mocha or other naturally occurring elements. When beans of varying flavor profiles and acidities are blended and roasted to perfection, a plain cup of coffee is no comparison to a sugar-filled coffee shake.
I don’t think that all coffee additives are bad, I just feel they can get out of hand. I typically drink a light caramel latte, but love espresso, French Press, pour-overs and everything in between. Some coffee drinkers might think this is a cardinal sin, however I believe that regardless of what you put in your morning cup of joe, coffee should be the highlight of the drink.
Many people claim they are undoubtedly coffee lovers, and yet hide their coffee with loads of flavorings, sugar, milk and spices. In my opinion, if you can’t drink a good cup of plain coffee, you aren’t a coffee lover.
I don’t want to come across as conceited. I love desserts, candies and sweets too. However, if your morning cup of, “coffee,” fulfills close to a third of your daily caloric intake, you don’t like coffee, you like sugar. That morning jolt of energy is not from the caffeine, it’s a sugar high. I encourage you to try out some real coffee. Go support a local coffee shop, order something that doesn’t take more than one breath to say and enjoy an artfully curated cup of coffee. You might just find that all that sugar was never really needed at all.
Adaelle Stobie 
Christian Lengkeek 
Ella Curcuruto