Carleton University students are seemingly inundated with coffee options. Some are popular chain stores or university cafés, while others are run by the imminent robot uprising.
As a self-proclaimed (and internet trained) coffee snob, I’ve taken it upon myself to visit five campus shops and rate them. This helped me determine where my favourite hot bean juice resides — and where you might want to get your next caffeine dose.
Each destination will be evaluated based on the taste of their drip coffee as well as their most americano-like beverage wherever possible.
(I chose to evaluate espresso primarily through americanos, as I prefer the less concentrated taste. Using water to dilute allows the unique flavours of the espresso to continue to shine through, but milk drinks tend to hide some of the softer flavours in coffee, making it more difficult to evaluate).
Rooster’s Coffeehouse
First up is Rooster’s Coffeehouse, tucked between Nideyinàn and Tory Building.
They have a plentiful offering of food and drink, including cheap hashbrowns, assorted wraps and matcha — but how does the coffee hold up?
Rooster’s light-roasted, fairtrade, drip coffee gets the job done. It tastes like a darker roast than one might expect, but it’s not overpowering and retains a nice flavour. It’s neither too bitter nor too sour and even packs a slight hint of sweetness. It isn’t anything mind-boggling, but it has a palatable taste and certainly won’t make you want to pour it down a drain.
Sadly, I cannot say the same for the Rooster’s americano.
To my dismay, the coffee had an unmistakable flavour that would strike fear in the heart of most people with taste buds: burnt to a crisp. The incredibly dark roast creates a strong, bitter and burnt taste that completely overpowers any other flavour.
I did not enjoy this coffee, but others might, especially as a latte or cappuccino. In the meantime, I’ll take my coffee beans roasted medium-rare.
Rooster’s Coffeehouse drip coffee: 7/10
Rooster’s Coffeehouse americano: 4/10
Teraanga Commons Dining Hall: Bree’s Inn
Next up is the Teraanga Commons Dining Hall, serving coffee made by an automatic bean-to-cup machine. Dining hall posters say they use Marley Coffee beans, a brand that prides itself on being Fairtrade certified. They also serve lattes and cappuccinos alongside their brewed coffee and espresso, prepared in a section called Bree’s Inn.
The drip coffee is self-serve, stored in well-insulated containers with spigots. The flavour is similar to other dark-roast drip coffee, with a small hint of bitterness. The coffee has a decently complex flavour, making me believe it could be made from freshly ground beans. While the flavour is decent, it isn’t anything extraordinary.
When I first tried the dining hall espresso, I was disappointed it didn’t have the qualities of an espresso shot. It was weak tasting and lacked real crema (the fine foam on the top of a fresh espresso shot). I used the hot water station to create an americano, but — I will admit — felt I added too much.
When I revisited Bree’s Inn another day, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a stronger espresso shot. It had a good concentration and bore a real crema. After diluting with water in an approximate three to one espresso to water ratio, I had a satisfying drink alongside my breakfast.
The americano had a balanced flavour; being neither too bitter nor sour. It was slightly sweet with a somewhat chocolate-y taste.
Teraanga Commons Dining hall drip coffee: 6/10
Teraanga Commons Dining hall americano: 7.5/10
Bridgehead
My third victim was Bridgehead Coffee in the Nicol Building, home to the Sprott School of Business.
Bridgehead serves a large variety of hot and cold beverages alongside some small food options, branding themselves as a specialty café.
I ordered a drip coffee prepared from their Centro Medium blend. The coffee had good beans backing it but unfortunately tasted overextracted and bitter, overshadowing its most unique and desirable flavours. It wasn’t bad, just lacklustre.
My americano did not disappoint. Prepared from Bridgehead’s Logdriver Espresso blend, the drink was not bitter at all and tasted bizarrely nutty, with the odd hint of sweetness. As its temperature dipped, a caramel flavour started to come through.
While I enjoyed this coffee, it did not carry as much punch as the typical americano and had a small touch of sourness.
Bridgehead drip coffee: 7/10
Bridgehead americano: 8/10
Quick Eats
Below the stairs in Nideyinàn, a robotic bean juice uprising is brewing.
Quick Eats is an interesting case: instead of cashiers, it makes use of cameras and an AI model to determine purchases, charging customers through the Hey Chef app.The drip coffee prepared by this machine was pretty average. It was quite dark in roast with some sweetness in the background, but any flavour one could make out was overpowered by an acidic taste.
Quick Eats didn’t have an americano, so I brought the espresso back to my dorm and added about 100 mL of hot water to create the proper ratio. This follows a typical water to espresso ratio of between one-to-one and three-to-one, considering the displayed espresso volume of 45 mL.
Before diluting, I had a taste of the espresso on its own.
The sip had good strength but was slightly sour and bitter. It had a very prominent sweetness, which surprised me, as the crema appeared to be produced by an artificially pressurized system. This is usually not ideal but worked quite well here.
The americano created from my dilution was very weak, and I’m unsure exactly why this was the case. Due to the uncertainty, and the fact that americanos are not standard at Quick Eats, I will rate them based on their espresso as opposed to the americano.
Quick Eats drip coffee: 5/10
Quick Eats espresso: 8/10
Leo’s Lounge
Finally, we have the engineering students’ favourite: Mackenzie Building’s Leo’s Lounge, offering food and drink for impressively low prices. Leo’s uses a bean-to-cup machine, like many other places on campus, and opts for Starbucks coffee blends.
Leo’s drip coffee was very balanced. The drink prepared from Starbucks’ Pike Place blend was not very strong, but the flavour present was clear and clean. It tasted very much like standard coffee, without much to write home about in the way of flavour notes.
Unfortunately, I cannot evaluate Leo’s Lounge americano relative to others, since they do not serve one or a straight espresso shot for me to create one.
Leo’s Lounge drip coffee: 7/10
Leo’s Lounge americano: N/A
In the end, Rooster’s has decent drip coffee and is located conveniently in the centre of the academics section of campus; Quick Eats is fast, and has surprisingly good espresso, all while being open 24/7; the residence dining hall has both decent drip coffee and americanos, already included in meal plans; and finally, while Leo’s doesn’t serve any espresso, they still offer great value in their drip coffee.
Of all of the coffee spots on campus, I most enjoyed Bridgehead’s americano. That said, there are many great options at Carleton to shake off those java jitters.
Featured graphic by Alisha Velji/the Charlatan
