The best part of waking up is…coffee. At least for the 44% of Americans who drink two-to-three cups a day it is. Caffeine has developed its own culture now, where fixes are not just in coffee or espresso, but energy drinks and even caffeinated water.
Starbucks raked in over $29 billion in revenue for 2021, an almost 24% increase from 2020. Something is admittedly different, and utterly wrong, about not having a venti Starbucks cup in hand to overcome the day, if that’s routine. Their caffeine levels explain the feeling of withdrawal that overcomes one’s body if they are forced to go without their dose.
A venti 20-ounce cup of Starbucks’ Pike Place Roast contains 410 milligrams of caffeine. According to the Mayo Clinic, around 400 milligrams a day is safe for a healthy adult.
For comparison, a large at Dunkin’ Donuts contains 270 milligrams, and the old-fashioned Folgers 12-ounce mug in the morning is anywhere between 120 and 160 milligrams of caffeine.
But don’t worry, consumers can get “stars,”or points, by scanning their app in-store or at the drive-thru window to get their load of energy a little cheaper after a few trips. In the United States, the Starbucks app has almost 25 million users, all waiting for their next reward.
All of the novelty “caffeine addict” t-shirts and mugs aren’t entirely accurate, though, despite the myth surrounding it and the number of people who rely on it daily. Dependency is what’s actually used to describe the need for caffeine, and it all has to do with dopamine signaling.
Obviously caffeine is a stimulant, hence the popularity in the morning to make the waking-up part a little easier. Methamphetamines and cocaine are also stimulants, but they induce a high amount of dopamine that hits the brain and throws off our reward circuits, which is needed to classify something as addictive. Caffeine’s boost of dopamine is much smaller, classifying that as a dependency or a tolerance.
Chloe Fortner, a junior at Ball State, is someone who drinks two coffees a day, but more-so out of routine than dependency.
“If I don’t have it for the day, it doesn’t change my mood. However, I do think that it affects my motivation and wanting to get things done,” Chloe says.
Chloe normally goes for a cold brew or Starbucks’ blonde espresso to jumpstart the day. I, on the other hand, am religious towards my medium iced coffee with almond milk and two artificial sweeteners.
My dependency makes itself vividly apparent when I pull out my Starbucks and Dunkin’ apps to make sure they’re scanned at the drive-thru windows. I’m nowhere near alone, as lines stretch down a major roadway blocking traffic just to get up to the menu. America may just actually run on…coffee.
Sources: Statista, Macrotrends, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Mayo Clinic, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Starbucks Investors Relations, Addiction Center, Addiction Center, Addiction Center
Featured Image: Alex Bracken
