Whatever Happened to a Good Ol’ Cup of Joe?

Brewpoint Coffee, located on the corner of Park Avenue and Adell Place in downtown Elmhurst, is steadily busy serving coffee and other beverages to the community. // Photo by Bentley Barrington

Walking into the Frick Center with high hopes and a hankering for caffeine, I make my way over to the illustrious Bean to get my daily fix of coffee.

I ask for a black roasted drip coffee, which you would think is a necessity for any establishment serving caffeinated beverages to have…only to watch the barista start looking in the fridge. Internally I start to question the abilities of the barista, then I realize how uncommon it might be for Gen Z to order a plain ol’ cup of joe.

Going up to random people around campus, it became very clear how much people simply just don’t prefer drip coffee. The vast majority of individuals I approached said they typically order some form of latte or espresso-variant type of drink.

Most of the students and faculty around campus proudly shared their niche cafe orders with me. Many of them mention lattes and chai lattes, macchiatos, frappuccinos, mochas, matcha, and refreshers as their go-to orders, even talking about the different flavors like caramel, vanilla, and pumpkin spice they add to their beloved beverages.

2018 Elmhurst University alum Christa Williams said, “I like my coffee hot, first of all, and I like a caramel latte with almond milk. I’m sorry I’m basic. Sometimes I’ll do french vanilla. Sometimes.” Williams even mentioned a drink that is no longer offered through Starbucks, and when questioned if she enjoys drip coffee Williams said, “No, I do not like drip coffee… I have a Keurig. If I go to Starbucks, they don’t have it anymore but that caramel apple spice, which is not coffee, is so good. It’s like straight-up apple juice.”

I figured I should ask the real experts about this trend in drip coffee’s declining popularity, the service workers making the drink orders. Keila Fuentes has been a barista for over two years at Brewpoint in downtown Elmhurst. I asked her how often they brew their drip coffee: “It really depends on the weather, the business. Right now, we’re on our third pot of the day. We open at 6:30 a.m., it’s like 10:30 a.m. right now. So, it can go pretty fast.” Fuentes continued, “We go through our drip coffee pretty often, especially if it’s cold out.”

Baristas at Brewpoint Coffee in Elmhurst try to keep up with the continuous flow of drink orders. // Photo by Bentley Barrington

A second-year occupational therapy grad student here at Elmhurst University, named Becca, had a coffee in her hand when I approached her. “I got this from Brewpoint, an iced banana bread latte.” She also said, “I can do regular drip coffee sometimes, but if I have regular drip coffee then I’ll definitely add sugar.”

This surprised me. If no one around campus is drinking regular drip coffee, but people around the area still are… What’s the deal then? I decided to also talk with the Bean barista, Yaser Ba Saddiq, to get his input on the matter as well. When talking about the most popular drink orders he makes he said, “I would say the matcha because it’s like a Gen Z thing, refreshers because it’s still hot outside. But in the winter we get more hot coffee.” Ba Saddiq added, “I noticed that it’s mostly the older generation that orders drip coffee the most.”

Rosa Boyas, a barista at Buehler Café on EU’s campus, and Ba Saddiq both claimed that the strawberry acai refresher is by far the most popular drink they serve year round. So, if the weather is cold enough, the customers are old enough, and the coffee doesn’t taste like crap, I guess drip coffee isn’t actually going out of fashion.