Nick Bennett estimates that Barnes & Noble now carries more adult coloring books than children’s.  
 
The Barnes & Noble on Erie Boulevard has been catering to this new trend. For about a year and a half now, their patrons not only want to read their regular magazines and books, but also want to draw and color. The surge in adult coloring inspired the store to provide an outlet in the form of a new activity: Coloring and Coffee. 
 
This Sunday, Barnes & Noble will host its November Coloring and Coffee session at 1 p.m. The event is exactly what it sounds like: coffee and coloring enthusiasts can drop by for an afternoon to channel their artistic instincts while sampling a range of coffees from the Barnes & Noble Cafe.  
 
“The event came to be because of the phenomenal popularity of adult coloring books,” said Nick Bennett, community business development manager at Barnes & Noble Syracuse. 
 
Coloring and Coffee makes a monthly appearance at the store, usually on the third Sunday of the month — this Sunday’s will be the last for this year. Visitors only need to bring their creativity, as Barnes and Noble provides all the coloring books and arts supplies. 
 
The additional promise of free coffee samples is also incentive for people to come to the event. The cafe serves Starbucks drinks and is currently offering a Spiced Sweet Cream, Narino 70 Cold Brew and Mexico Chiapas.
 
Originally intended to be a one-hit wonder, Coloring and Coffee wasn’t originally planned to happen monthly. Every summer, the bookstore puts on an event called Get Pop Cultured. The event provides activities to educate people about pop culture. One year, the store was asked to arrange adult coloring as one of the activities. 
 
“We decided to give it a try and it was very popular,” Bennett said. “Because of its popularity, we wanted to keep going for it.”   
 
The success of Get Pop Cultured, coupled with the rise in adult coloring book sales, pushed the store to pursue the idea of hosting a coloring event, Bennett said. Eventually, Coloring and Coffee just “sort of blew up and people were coloring all over the place,” Bennett said.
 
“The idea was that people can come and share their passion for coloring,” Bennett said. “It’s also fun, therapeutic and stress-relieving.”  
 
Dasha Foley, a sophomore entrepreneurship major in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, agrees. She also liked the added bonus of caffeine.
 
“I love coffee, especially free coffee,” said Foley. “I feel like coloring would be a nice stress reliever to this very tumultuous week.”  
 
An important factor in the success of Coloring and Coffee is the wide audience it draws, especially in a college town.  
 
“If college students are looking for a little bit of stress relief, they may find being creative and detail-oriented helps break up the day and some of the stress from upcoming exams,” Bennett said. “I could say it’s definitely suited to some college kids.”  
 
College students have various avenues for channeling their stress; Bennett, an SU alumnus, said he himself was more oriented to music than “traditional art.”

However, Bennett pointed to the success of Coloring and Coffee and its universal appeal to all interests.
 
“It truly has popularity among many different kinds of people — it’s a very diverse audience, as far as age ranges and gender go,” Bennett said. “Anybody who is into art has shown up, but it has appeal to almost everybody.”  
 
With changing seasons and trends, Coloring and Coffee sessions occasionally try to set a seasonal theme. Most of the time, however, they go with evergreen designs that strike a chord with audiences.  
 
Some students at Syracuse University like Shazif Shaikh, a sophomore aerospace engineering major, were surprised Barnes & Noble had an outlet in Syracuse, but were instantly excited by the idea of Coloring and Coffee.  
 
Shaikh said his hometown of New York City has a bookstore called Strand with “a bunch of coloring books.” But if Barnes & Noble was doing something similar, then there is definite motivation for him to pop by.  
 
“I think it’s a phenomenal idea,” Shaikh said. “Coloring has really become something you don’t do after a certain point, and now it’s become very relaxing. And coffee, who doesn’t love a cup of joe? It brings three of my favorite things together, coffee, books and coloring.” 
 
Bennett reflected the same ideas. “It hits on a multitude of levels of what people are looking for,” he said. “It can be a very social experience for those who are into the same thing for different reasons.”  
 
With Thanksgiving coming as a welcome break for many students, Coloring and Coffee is a lighthearted start for those staying in Syracuse this weekend. Like Bennett said: “It’s a great opportunity to come, relax a little bit and enjoy yourself in the company of others who do the same thing.”