Port City Java and Starbucks are the premier coffee hotspots on NC State’s campus, serving a variety of students in Talley Student Union and Park Shops daily. Both coffee chains have a very large fan base — Starbucks is a household name across the country and Port City Java started as a small, but widely popular spot in Wilmington, NC.

However, do students buy more from the on-campus Port City Java or Starbucks?

According to Keith Smith, director of Board Operations and Sustainability, Port City Java and Starbucks have about the same number of customers per day.

Jennifer Gilmore, the marketing and communications director of Campus Enterprises, stated that Port City Java has been on campus since 2008. The main goal of bringing Port City Java to campus was to provide students a coffee shop that also had food options, unlike Starbucks who did not have a robust food program.

“[We wanted to] make food more accessible to students on the go,” Gilmore said. “When we were looking at the different options at that time, there were very few [coffee shops] that would offer us all the things we needed in one footprint.”

According to Gilmore, NC State Campus Enterprises worked with Port City Java to build a student-focused menu, providing nourishment along with a necessary caffeine boost, filling this niche for many students.

However, Starbucks originated on campus when Talley Student Union was remodeled in 2015, Gilmore stated. Starbucks offered what NC State’s campus had been lacking: a commercial coffee chain.

The introduction of Starbucks to the university food landscape brought concern as to whether both coffee chains could adequately survive the collegiate terrain. Gilmore asserts that there is nothing to worry about.

“There is definitely a lot of coffee business in that area of campus to sustain two different options,” Gilmore said. “There’s always a line at Starbucks and there’s always a line at Port City Java.”

In addition, the coffee shops have risen to become some of the most popular spots in Talley, Gilmore stated, especially with the advent of Tapingo.

According to Gilmore, both chains bring diversity to the culinary landscape at NC State, offering lattes as well as an opportunity for leisure.*

*Editor’s Note: A paragraph misrepresented as a quote rom Jennifer Gilmore has been removed.

Rachael Davis contributed to this article.