By Noa Maltzman '18, Staff Writer
This past Monday was national coffee day. Perhaps if you had time to celebrate you would have indulged by going to a local coffee shop downtown. Unfortunately, since national coffee day fell on a Monday it is likely that most people had class , work, other obligations and were not able to make it downtown and therefore have to settle for on-campus coffee.
You might not think that all on-campus coffee is bad but maybe you were wondering, such like the person who posted on Yik Yak asking, “Happy National Coffee day. Which shitty on campus coffee should I have to celebrate?”
On campus, there are three main options for coffee. These options are the Atrium Café, Burgess and the dining hall. At limited hours you can also get coffee at the Spa and the library café.
For those not on the meal plan, the dining hall probably serves the most expensive cup of coffee you will ever buy unless you also get food with it. To enter the dinning hall it cost at least $7.49. This might be a lot to pay for a cup of coffee but unlike any other place on campus you do get unlimited refills as long as you don’t leave.
Some might not mind the dining hall coffee but others, such as a person who posted on Yik Yak do mind it. A particular Yak read, “Dhall coffee doesn’t stain clothes because it is essentially water.” This blurb illuminates some students’ distaste for what is being served within the infamous dhall.
If $7.49 is more then you desire to spend, you might want to try getting coffee from another location around campus.
Over the summer, Burgess underwent a renovation and now serves Starbucks coffee but the question remains, is it worth the extra money or should one get the cheaper coffee from the Atrium Café? To test this, I decided to purchase a regular iced coffee from both locations.
At Burgess, I bought a 16-ounce iced coffee and the total cost before tax was $2.30. The wait for the coffee was just a few minutes due to the line of students waiting for their fair share. After the coffee was ready, one can head over to the close-by counter and add milk and sugar to their drink.
A much cheaper (less then $2) 16-ounce iced coffee was then purchased from the Atrium Café. Here, one is given a cup filled with ice and you are allowed to fill it with coffee yourself. The experience here was much different than Burgess as the wait was non-existent as no one else was in line. Continually, the Atrium Café also has a much greater selection of milk and sweeteners including flavored options that one can add.
After evaluating the coffee, it’s been determined that if you want unlimited coffee - go to the dining hall, if you are on a tight budget or short on time go to the Atrium Café, and if you want to have an experience closest to going to a local coffee shop go to Burgess. Hope you all enjoyed national coffee day, I’m sure caffeine will be needed for the upcoming weeks!