Coffee lovers in the O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library will now have to go elsewhere for an evening caffeine boost.

The Coffee Bene location inside the library previously closed at 8 p.m. on weeknights, but at the beginning of spring semester, it closed at 3 p.m.

“The reason for the new hours is because sales are not high enough to stay open,” Daniella Garcia, Coffee Bene general manager, told TommieMedia in an email. “However, I did speak to my boss, and he allowed me to add another hour.”

As of Feb. 12, the library coffee shop now closes at 4 p.m. Garcia said she would push to add on hours as the semester continued if the 4 p.m. move proves profitable.

St. Thomas senior Madison Lehn, who drinks coffee “every day, multiple times a day,” found the hour change to be too early, considering some students are still in class and go there afterward for their afternoon coffee and study routine.

“I know they used to be open until eight, and that was always nice because you’d come here to study. If you have to study late, it’s nice to have coffee,” Lehn said.

The new hours came as quite a shock to sophomore Madeline Sarkis on a recent trip to Coffee Bene.

“I remember going there at like six or something, way earlier than I usually do, and they were closed, and I was like, ‘what?’” Sarkis said.

Even though Coffee Bene’s main location is just off campus, Sarkis finds it more convenient to go to the library for her coffee fix, especially since “It’s freezing and when I already have my stuff in the library — it’s just unfortunate.”

Coffee Bene’s late hours were one of the reasons Sarkis would go to the library to study.

“One of my motivations to come to the library was because Coffee Bene was open, and then I could spend a couple of hours there,” Sarkis said.

Sarkis believes that she will be less inclined to come to the library with the hour changes.

“If it’s later at night, I wouldn’t even bother going to the library. I’d probably go to ASC and sit in there because at Summit Marketplace they have coffee,” Sarkis said.

For Lehn, coffee and studying students seem to go together naturally.

“Being in a library, this is where people go to study at night. I think, especially here, they should be open late,” Lehn said.

Althea Larson can be reached at lars2360@stthomas.edu.