Fall semester started. You know what that means, it’s time to get addicted to coffee again!

Just kidding, sort of.

That 90 mg average of caffeine per serving is the real reason a lot of people drink coffee. Studies have shown that it can be good and bad for you. In the right amount it can make you focused, improve your mood and some studies suggest it’ll protect your organs. That’s why we drink it in the morning.

Drinking too much might make you restless, dehydrated or it may even inhibit sleep if you have it too late in the day. Regulation is key of course, but coffee is certainly healthier than energy drinks.

Caffeine aside, coffee is just a great thing to get into. It’s certainly a delicious hobby to get into, and it has a wide range of enjoyability.

For the casuals, you can go as simple as an instant coffee mix. Just pour it and swirl.

For the experts, the routine starts with a high-quality grinder to grind your rare, imported beans in the morning because ‘Yes bro, there’s a difference. Pre-ground coffee just doesn’t taste as good.’Then, you use a Barista Espresso machine that looks like it belongs in a high-end restaurant but that you somehow acquired at Williams-Sonoma. A machine so precise and outrageously expensive you’d assume it can cure cancer.

The beauty of it is that there’s a wide range of enjoyability between the two ends of the spectrum. I use a French press myself. It’s a little more time consuming, yes, but it imparts the best flavor among the methods I’ve tried.

I like my coffee black with no sugar, but another beauty of coffee is the number of add-ons available. Steamed milk, honey, half-and-half cream, sweetener, Stevia and many others that I can’t mention in one article.

And let’s not forget iced coffee. As a Brazilian, at first, I thought it was an abomination. But as these dog days of summer came rolling through, I realized that it is actually brilliant. Iced coffee is one of America’s finest inventions, up there with the Model-T and the pacemaker.

That’s why it’s so easy to be pretentious about coffee. You can enjoy it in so many ways and year-round.

There’s no ‘right’ way to prepare it, despite what coffee influencers tell you. There’s no ‘best’ coffee shop, no ‘perfect’ add-on. The fun is to explore all that yourself, with the benefit of getting you through the boring classes.

But honestly, coffee is so good, you might even find yourself drinking decaf late at night, just for the taste.