Starbucks vs. Coffee Bean

We stay up late, finishing an English project or a lab report for chemistry. Then, when we finally stop hitting the snooze button on our alarm clocks we turn to caffeine to fully awaken us. Coffee plays a major part in most students’ everyday lives. Some students go to their nearby Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf while others flee to the local Starbucks. Each shop offers many varieties of drinks, ranging from iced vanilla lattes to hot black coffee. With so many choices, one must consider all aspects of each establishment when deciding where to wake up their taste buds.As many have already heard, a new Starbucks just opened up. It sits alone on the edge of the strip mall parking lot at the corner of Pico and Lincoln Boulevard. Previously, hundreds of thirsty Samo students would leave school every day and make their ways into the nearby Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf without hesitation. Now, the Samo student body will be faced with the tough decision of where to get its daiwly dose of caffeine: Starbucks or Coffee Bean?“I prefer Starbucks, there’s one everywhere and the seasonal changes are fun and remind me to embrace the seasons. I’ve been getting hot chocolates there since I was little and my friends and I now routinely go for the frappes. The baristas are friendly and because we go so often it reminds us of funny memories and good old times. I’m so glad they opened one next to the school. On the other hand, I’ve been forced to go to Coffee Bean a couple times by one of my friends and my experience was horrible. The line took forever and the first time I went I only ordered water but it had black coffee grounds floating in it! The next time I got a blended drink and I had a severe allergic reaction. I had to go to the doctor. For that reason I think of Starbucks as a place that has much more natural drinks. For me, Starbucks is the only real coffee place close to the school.”— Skylar Hauge (’17)“I prefer Coffee Bean over Starbucks. Starbucks, over time has acquired an ‘input and output,’ delivery fashion. The process is similar to a factory or working machine--you order the coffee, you wait, and they give it to you.  There is no customer to employee connection, and in terms of taste, Starbucks and Coffee Bean taste virtually the same. Besides, Starbucks puts more sugar in their products. Coffee Bean is typically overlooked because it isn’t the ‘brand name coffee’. Starbucks may be more popular, but this doesn’t necessarily make it better. And Coffee Bean, on top of having less sugar, and better networking, is simply a more inviting coffee shop.”— Mia Sercarz (’17)