Teens connect at coffee shops
Toolbox
By VIRGINIA ANDERSON Cox News Service - Published: April 18, 2006
ATLANTA — It's 3:40 on a Friday afternoon, and the jeans-and-plaid crowd begins to march in at ChocoLat? Coffee in northeast Atlanta.
Faith Khalik, 16, a sophomore at St. Pius X Catholic High School, orders a frappe, a concoction of ice, milk, coffee and syrup that looks like a bubble bath in a plastic cup by the time it's served to her.
"I like the cold stuff," said Faith. "It's like ice cream."
And yet, it might be just because it's not ice cream and a little bit of an adult drink that Faith and thousands of other metro teenagers — like their peers across the country — are making coffee shops the soda shops of their generation.
Instead of fries and burgers served up by a ponytailed girl on roller skates, frappes and lattes are dished up by tattooed 20-somethings with wrinkled shirts.
"It's a place to hang out that's not home," said Genevieve Ward, a manager at ChocoLat?.
It may be one recent adolescent trend that doesn't have parents pulling their hair out. In an era of provocative blogs and binge drinking, hanging out in a coffee shop before or after school seems positively innocent. And it differs from the soda shop and burger joint of yesteryear in that teens don't actually seem to mind that silver-haired seniors, lawyers in tailored suits or police officers may be sitting at the table next to them.
More than anything, it also may say something about how teenagers, for all of their pushing of limits and patience, may be craving a safe harbor.
"What this 'trend' says is that a coffee shop has a role today in bringing up kids," said Harry Balzer, vice president of market research firm NPD Group. "It's less about a need to have coffee than that every generation of kids has to have a place to go."
Teenagers do not represent a huge share of the coffee market — about 3.7 percent, Balzer said.
But they represent twice that presence in coffee specialty drinks, such as the shakelike Frappuccinos and flavored iced drinks. When it comes to just plain coffee, teens account for 1.3 percent of the market, Balzer said.
That's why he believes the teen coffee klatch is more about connection than caffeine, he said.
"Today the hangout spots are the coffee shops because they're not throwing kids out. You can thank that 'coffee shop' manager for giving your kids a place to go," Balzer said.
Pediatricians and nutritionists, however, do see some small clouds of concern brewing.
If teens are drinking coffee because they need a caffeine boost, that could be a sign of sleep deprivation, an area of growing concern in adolescent medicine.
Drowsy teenagers may seem to be as perennial as teenagers in love, but sleep experts and pediatricians warn that today's overstimulated teenagers are at heightened risk for sleep loss.
Computers, iPods and cell phones are just some of the electronic goodies that rob today's teens of the eight hours of sleep they need. Some teens who stay up until the early morning hours may be trying to compensate for sleep loss with caffeine, doctors warn.
Sleep loss in itself is a big problem, but the addition of a stimulant such as caffeine throws in another risk, said Dr. Joseph Gigante, associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville.
"Caffeine is a stimulant, and you do get addicted to it," Gigante said. "And it can make kids hyper, anxious and jittery, just as with adults."
Patrick Williams, 15, said he likes espresso in the morning, before he goes to school, to help him stay awake during classes.
"I'm usually really tired, and if I have some espresso with some water, school seems to be a little better," Patrick said.
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