Harvard Coffee Recs from a Gas Station Brew Connoisseur

I am a coffee lover. Most people who say this go on to tell you the aromatic reasons why coffee is amazing, what beans they prefer, the specific grinding method, the brewing technique—yeah, sorry, that’s not me. Let me restart. I love coffee, but honestly it all tastes the same. For most coffee lovers, Harvard is a gold mine of delightful chains and local shops to choose from. Not for me. I am pretty hard-pressed to find a place that will sell me my go-to order: large, hot, black, no cream, no sugar—for less than $2.

I do enjoy a well-made cup, but it has a specific purpose in my life: to wake me up after an inevitably incomplete night’s rest. This adds an important stipulation: cost. Nine times out of 10, a dining hall provides that cup of coffee for free—cheap, delicious, and effective. Unfortunately for me, when I am far from a dining hall or meeting up with a friend, I sometimes end up buying a $5 cup from one of these shops. For those who similarly struggle and are unafflicted by taste—I am going to leak my (top secret) rankings.

Buckminster’s

If I really have to buy a midday coffee, the best money to spend is naturally not mine. If you looked at my Board PLUS spending, you would probably find that 80% of it goes here. Its location in the Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineering, right outside the Science Complex, makes it convenient for almost all my classes.

Dunkin’

My easy second is Dunkin’. It’s probably the cheapest place on this list, and the coffee always hits. Added benefit: my credit card gives me a monthly Dunkin’ credit.

Capital One Café

Sometimes this place randomly has free coffees. As you may have noticed, the top three spots in this ranking are almost entirely about price—because, again, they all taste the same.

Flour

Ok, I will include some non-price reasons (but also because the rest are just all expensive places, so I gotta rank them somehow). I appreciate that it is a Boston-based company, and the founder, Joanne Chang ’91, is a Harvard alum.

Tatte

The only time I have ever purchased coffee here was with my family (so I didn’t pay). My mom loved the coffee, and I thought it tasted like coffee—but it is still a mandatory stop when my parents visit.

Blank Street

Only New Yorkers and California natives go here—hence it is expensive and, in my opinion, performative.

Pavement

Middle-tier coffee place; good location, expensive coffee. Good spot to meet people not from Harvard. Also has good bagels.

Peet’s Coffee

This is the stuff they serve at the Science and Engineering Complex; why would I spend my own money here? Side note: I still have not found this place; I think my freshman-year proctor recommended it to me. I got lost and ended up in Grendel’s—my bad.

Bluestone Lane

I did not know this place was a coffee shop until I researched it for this article. I felt kinda bad leaving this off—might delete later. My roommate said, “best interior, great date spot.” Although that is enticing, I will probably still never attend before graduation.

Blue Bottle

Performative. Overpriced. My pickleball partner said his ex goes here. No other explanation is needed.

Clover

BRING CHICK-FIL-A BACK TO THE SCIENCE CENTER.

[Honorable Mention] Adams D-Hall Disappearing French Vanilla

If you know, you know. A beautiful concoction of unspecified-source beans, with an incredibly artificial vanilla flavor. Last semester, Adams sent me on a hunt to obtain only the finest beans from El Salvador for this blend. Unfortunately, it seems I have failed, as the coffee has become elusive in the dining hall.

[Honorable Mention] Pierce Hall $1.00 Vending Machine

$1.00 away from perfection.

What better way to end this article than to remind everyone of all the great things I could buy with the $5 I saved by not going to one of these shops to purchase a coffee: I could buy a bedazzler to decorate my d-hall mug; under-eye masks to hide the bags that staying up late writing this article gave me; a cheap frother to froth the non-existent milk in my coffee. You get the point: every day when I walk to class, I might crave a coffee, but this is the internal math I do to support my savings.

You might think I fall under the “broke, frugal college student” stereotype, but honestly I do spend money on things that matter to me. Today, I was hungry, so I bought myself some chips at CVS. Plenty of experts and articles, in some ways, support my point with the “Don’t buy the latte. Invest the money” mentality. But that’s not really the argument I am trying to make. If coffee shops are your thing and bring you joy, I think there is nothing better to spend your money on. They don’t bring me joy … honestly, they bring me rage. So I will stick to the d-halls and buy as little coffee as possible.

Kalvin Frank ’28 (kfrank@college.harvard.edu) apologizes to anyone who may frequent these places.