By Min Qiao
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When I was first introduced to coffee, I was overwhelmed by its rich, smooth aroma, and since then, I have always been coffee’s biggest fan. As a child, I drank it for its crisp and delicate taste and its aromatic scent that could wake me up even before the first sip.  

As a teenager, I discovered something even better—Starbucks. I found myself opting more and more for this new trendy drink as I began to see more and more of that signature green symbol everywhere. Ignoring the price tags, my simple cups of home-brewed coffee were soon replaced by a daily Non-Fat-Extra-Foam-Triple-Shot-Venti-Caramel-Macchiato and routine runs to the nearby Starbucks. It was not until I noticed the exponentially decreasing balance of my bank account that I began to think about the costs of keeping with this trend. All those years of ignoring the price tag had finally caught up to me. 

Supporting my “Starbucks” habit cost about $5 per drink, and given that I average about four cups per week, I racked up over $20 each week. Finally, the straw that broke the camel’s back came when I heard of the news of Starbucks upping their orders for their more complicated drinks. There was just no way I could continue paying higher and higher prices for these fancy drinks, and getting a simple coffee there just didn’t seem worth the trouble. 

Reluctantly, I broke out the old coffee machine over the break and brewed my first cup of coffee in over a year. I was relieved to find that months of the fancy coffee hadn’t refined my tastes too much. In fact, it was not bad at all. More importantly, my wallet was looking a lot fatter and I had more money to spend on other things.

Stripped of my reliance on Starbucks, I rekindled my relationship with my coffee-maker. Had I continued to ride the Starbucks wave, I would have never known of the endless possibilities of Columbian, Jamaica,  and Brazilian roasts. I wondered how much of my love for Starbucks was for its genuine taste. Unlike the countless other trends that I had tried to keep up with, the Starbucks one was particularly costly as it temporarily robbed me of my love for coffee. While I still give in and splurge on the occasional cappuccinos now and then, this is one trend that I cannot afford to keep up with.