Meeting me there is one of my close friends from high school, Natalie. For context, the previous night, Natalie and I attended a concert for the K-pop girl group Twice in Atlanta. The concert had really been the only thing on our minds for the entire week, so naturally, we had both put off a lot of work for the weekend. We made plans at the concert to meet at Jittery Joe’s and get a large chunk of it done.

She is already sitting at a table next to a window when I walk in, wearing the Twice crewneck that she purchased at the concert the night before. We both order iced spiced chai lattes (a tongue-twister at the counter), and since I haven’t had any lunch, I also order a cheese danish from the case. A few minutes later, we have our drinks and we sit down.

Again, I’ve had Jittery Joe’s chai lattes many times before, and I already know that I love them. This one does not disappoint. The drink is really sweet, which is exactly how I like it. Still, I’ve never felt like the sweetness was too much, and I think that has a lot to do with the consistency. Jittery Joe’s chai latte is definitely more of a latte than a chai, which makes it very creamy and smooth. I’m not enough of a chai connoisseur to be able to pick out the spices, but the spiced flavor is very distinct from the vanilla version. I also appreciate that the spice isn’t so intense that it gets stuck in the back of your throat, which can happen if you lean in too heavily. The result is a first sip that makes you throw your head back and slap your hand on the table because it’s just that good. Which me and Natalie proceed to do.

“I literally can never study at Jittery Joe’s because my drink is gone in like ten minutes,” Natalie says. Which is an exaggeration, but her drink is gone within the hour.

Me and Natalie have a bit of a history with Jittery Joe’s. But, to understand that, you kinda have to go back to the beginning. We went to the same middle school, and in high school we were both a part of the drama club. We were even officers for the troupe together. Despite our close proximity, we were never really close friends until around my senior year of high school. Even when we both got accepted to UGA, I really thought that we might just be campus acquaintances.

That was until we ended up having two classes together our first semester. Suddenly, we were spending a lot of time together. Most of this time was spent between classes at the Jittery Joe’s in the Miller Learning Center. When I think about my friendship with Natalie, I think about studying for our film class over chai lattes, together in a booth in the MLC. Those moments spent together, nearly every day, is where our friendship really came into its own.

That Jittery Joes was even where we had bought our tickets to see Twice nearly four months before. We both skipped class to hunker down and camp out on Ticketmaster, and the moment is one of my favorite memories from last semester. And yes, I was drinking a chai latte.

In the time since then, I’ve added another major. Now, Natalie and I are both studying Entertainment Media Studies. She was the one to suggest that I look into the major in the first place. Anytime we get together now, we’re talking about new films and TV shows we’ve seen. I say this with all the love in the world (and with her permission), but Natalie’s favorite pastime is explaining to me the plot of movies and shows that I’ve never seen before. In immense detail. Without asking. I don’t even have to respond. She just keeps going. And she’s self-aware about it, too.

“I’m literally stream-of-consciousness talking to you right now,” she tells me in the middle of explaining the plot of Los Olvidados, a movie I have never seen and have no intentions on seeing. But I still listen. And I actually find myself really interested in her analysis.

Natalie is one of my only friends that I get to exercise my creative writing muscles with. On this particular Jittery Joe’s study session, Natalie works on a script she has to write for a production class. We toss around ideas for it the entire time, none of which are particularly good. Not all of our suggestions are entirely serious, either. Natalie has always shared the same passion for media that I do, and now that we’re in the same major, that aspect of our friendship is only growing.

Yes, some things only get better with time, but I can’t say the same about my chai latte. While a Jittery Joe’s chai always starts out with a sugary bang, the powder that they must use to flavor it always settles at the bottom of the drink. The result is that your last few sips are clumpy, which is not a great way to end the experience. Given that a medium chai latte will run you $6.25, I think the price should warrant a pretty flawless experience. But more about that in my final rankings.