Coffee & Community

In Greenville, SC

Visit Greenville's coffee shops to grab a specialty latte on a cool fall day or an iced

drink for the warmer days! Get a closer look at four of Greenville's unique coffee shops

below.

The Coffee Shop Atmosphere

Greenville, South Carolina is a coffee town. Within each little pocket of Greenville sits a local coffee shop that is filled with customers either typing aggressively on their laptops, reading gripping novels, conversing with coworkers, or just taking a moment to relax over a latte. No matter where you are in Greenville, it is likely that you are less than 10 minutes away from a coffee shop.

The Vibe

Coffee shops offer a space for people to breathe, create, and focus outside of their normal environments. The loud purring of the espresso machine, the aroma of the ground coffee beans filling the air, and the clutter of voices faintly flooding the shop allow for creativity to flow. The environment of a coffee shop, whether it is dark and quiet or bright and bustling, plays a role in how you are able to focus and zone in on work. For me, lighter and more eclectic coffee shops tend to be a more creative space where I can work on shorter assignments. Shops with a darker and deeper ambiance allow me to work more intensely and focus harder.

Greenville has a variety of coffee shops that provide different vibes and atmospheres. Greenville is unique in that it is home to coffee beans imported from all over the world. There are about 17 coffee shops within the Greenville area which provides so many options to drink a coffee, complete whatever task is weighing on you, or just to hang out. Coffee shops provide a space for people to socialize with friends or meet up with people they have never met. The lure of a coffee shop is its welcoming and soothing aura - the smell of coffee cures stress and the music fills the silence. Coffee shops are able to serve as a “third place.” This space is outside of your home, outside of your work, and is a place to take a breath in a different environment.

Not only does coffee widen your eyes a little more in the morning or slump of the afternoon, but it gives an inviting and cozy feel to spending time with that friend you haven’t seen in a while or even sparking up a conversation with a stranger you see on the other side of the shop. While coffee shops offer a space for conversation and hanging out, they also create hard work and focus. I oftentimes enter a coffee shop filled with tension and stress but find myself starting to loosen the tension as I watch the steam leave my mug, look around and see other people enjoying themselves, and taste the rich darkness of my coffee.

Exploring a New Environment

For most college students, coffee shops are a MUST! Studying on campus can get stale and boring, so being in a town that has so many choices for good coffee makes doing work much more enjoyable. My freshmen year of college is where I made my best friends living on campus and I rarely drifted away from campus to do homework. My grades weren’t as good as they could have been, but most of that is due to the fact that I lost my two closest family members, my mom, and my grandma. When I returned to school for my sophomore year, trying to do homework on campus became difficult in that I felt I couldn’t focus and was always deep in thought about my life rather than my work. I began venturing out to coffee shops in Greenville starting with Coffee Underground and Spill The Beans, eventually moving to shops such as Mountain Goat and Bridge City. I realized that the environment of the coffee shop was able to keep me distracted and focused at the same time. Distracted from my life and the things that felt heavy, but focused on my schoolwork and internship work.

If you are looking for a coffee shop to have the same experience that I did, type “coffee shops near me” into your Google Maps when in Greenville and I guarantee you are likely to find amazing, local coffee shops in the community.

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