{"id":170,"date":"2015-02-18T23:42:44","date_gmt":"2015-02-18T23:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/?p=170"},"modified":"2015-04-16T15:23:22","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T15:23:22","slug":"starbucking-and-the-american-way-of-caffeination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/?p=170","title":{"rendered":"“Starbucking” and the American Way of Caffeination"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hannah<\/a><\/p>\n

Hannah Bevis (far left, with NCC students<\/em>
Year Abroad: Junior<\/em>
Term: fall 2014<\/em>
Major: English-writing<\/em>
Minor: Marketing<\/em>
Program: NCC-in-England (Canterbury Christ Church University)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When I think of coffee and coffee shops in the US, there\u2019s one word that comes to mind:<\/p>\n

Starbucks.<\/em><\/p>\n

Living in Naperville, I\u2019m a hop, skip, and a jump away from two different Starbucks and if I ever want a hot drink or some kind of pastry snack, that\u2019s my go-to place.\u00a0 Sure, there are probably other places I could go to if I really wanted to, but come on \u2013 it\u2019s pumpkin spice latte season. Where else would I go?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not how it is in Canterbury, England.\u00a0 There are a couple of Starbucks here (I would know. I staked them out early.), but it\u2019s not as popular as it is in Naperville, and there are a lot of other options that I\u2019ve really loved trying. They all have their perks.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest differences in the UK that I\u2019ve noticed so far is one that a lot of people might think is fairly obvious; besides coffee, they do drink a lot of tea here.\u00a0 At Canterbury Christ Church, the school that I go to, they have an event called \u201cTea and Toast,\u201d where they serve late night tea and refreshments to those who live around the area.\u00a0 While North Central might woo students to attend events by offering free Chipotle or t-shirts, it\u2019s not uncommon for free tea to do the same here at CCCU.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not all just tea. Coffee is a huge part of the culture here, just like it is in the States, but there are some fairly big differences between the two.\u00a0 While Starbucks and other shops like Dunkin\u2019 Donuts offer more drinks to-go or in easy to carry containers, coffee shops here in Canterbury very rarely offer travel cups.\u00a0 When you order a drink here, it\u2019s often served in a mug or glass, and you can sit down in one of the many indoor or outdoor tables located at nearly every cafe or shop and take in the atmosphere of the downtown area or listen to some music being played on street corners. Drinking coffee here is less about the actual caffeine (although that\u2019s important too) and more about the experience of taking a moment to sit back, relax, and enjoy a great cup of coffee or tea, preferably with a friend or two.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth mentioning that the presentation of the coffee itself is beautiful.\u00a0 Whether you get a mocha or an espresso, there\u2019s always an intricately designed foam creation on the top of you drink, or the mug it\u2019s in looks like it\u2019s from a magazine.\u00a0 Each drink is a tiny, Instagrammable work of art.<\/p>\n

To put it all into perspective, there\u2019s exactly one Dunkin\u2019 Donuts in the entirety of England. There\u2019s quite a few Starbucks, but they\u2019re vastly outnumbered by homier, more comfortable, quaint coffee houses that encourage people to simply come in and enjoy the coffee.\u00a0 The point of coffehouses here in Canterbury are not to get your coffee to-go, but instead to caffeinate in peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I think of coffee and coffee shops in the US, there\u2019s one word that comes to mind: Starbucks. Living in Naperville, I\u2019m a hop, skip, and a jump away from two different Starbucks and if I ever want a hot drink or some kind of pastry snack, that\u2019s my go-to place.\u00a0 Sure, there are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":524,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncclinked.com\/nccpassport\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}