“Maybe we could just get together and eat a bunch of caramels”. 

The title character of the 1997 film Good Will Hunting has clearly missed the point. Caramels? Who declines the offer of coffee and invites someone out to chew caramels? Surely the main purpose behind asking someone for a drink is a social one and well, at 10am, it’s probably best not to be thinking of drinking anything stronger (at least not until May Week). What about offering someone tea? Typically sipped with your grandmother, it’s never really going to hint at your romantic motives, but how have coffee shops become the home of first dates anyway? 

Maybe Will is on to something. Taking away the buzz and the cultural phenomenon that drinking and enjoying coffee in cafes has welcomed, why coffee in the first place? After all, as he says, caramels are really just as arbitrary as an invitation to drink coffee. 

Surely consuming caffeine is not really arbitrary. It’s addictive to say the least. It might be the reason I went over my overdraft not once, but four times. Yet if I just wanted the caffeine hit, popping Pro-Plus or even enduring the horror that is cheap instant coffee could have given me that buzz. 

So what, I like good coffee. But what I really like is the freedom one gets in a good coffee shop: both physically and mentally. Yes, you can drink coffee (and often good coffee) anywhere. Finding a good cafe? A different and often difficult feat. 

Coffee#1 Cafe seems to have cracked the code for a good coffee shop. Based in the South West, it was awarded the title of Best UK Coffee Chain four years running.  The allure of this place is centered on two factors. Superb coffee, but most of all, space. Half antique library and half retro grandmother’s sitting room, but on a gigantic scale. A certain amount of space is needed for a coffee shop to thrive economically. But why so much? This chain has a buzz factor: its visitors could easily stay for the day and never have to be ‘politely’ asked if they have ‘finished’ (Benet’s in Cambridge could learn a thing or two from this).

The beauty of this space? For one hour or for an afternoon, the coffee shop becomes an extension of your sitting room – an escape. I confess. I’m a coffee shop addict. I crave a place where I can collect my thoughts, where there’s no clutter or a bed to ‘nap’ on a few metres away (we’ve all been there) and there’s the promise of good coffee and a defi nite seat. Sometimes I worry about how much excitement this gives me. Sitting in a library, squirming over the silent stress from other students around me, has never been my style. Whether it’s a cutesy independent coffee shop, like Indigo Cafe off King’s Parade, or – hipster coff ee shop addicts beware – the Starbucks on Christ’s Lane, I stumble towards them like a fresher to Cindies. 

I’m not a coffee shop snob. I love Starbucks, because it works for me. It’s a popular chain and to some, the coffee can be pretty crummy but you have to know what to ask for. You can guarantee you will never be asked to move along or worse, feel obliged to give up your seat. Like McDonald’s, it’s the familiarity factor. Ordering a Big Mac or a frappuccino in Cambridge is the same as ordering anywhere in the world.  That’s why upon arriving in Vienna, a little homesick, I sought refuge at the nearest ‘Bucks. For any and all students who need to escape from the confines of their room for a while, these are pretty valuable factors. Whether or not you’re looking for the caff eine buzz, coffee shops themselves provide this home. 

But the reason why we wouldn’t choose caramels, in or outside a coffee shop, as in Good Will Hunting? For me, one clear reason comes to mind. Watching your date watch you chew caramels over conversation could never be a good idea.