Fun fact: We are 11.6 miles from the first Starbucks ever created.
Coffee addiction runs deep into the souls of Bellevue residents and Seattlites – and it’s necessary for anyone who really needs coffee everyday to know all the strategies for getting the best cup of coffee for your dollar on campus.
Coffee tastes different based on where it’s grown, fermented and shipped. Sometimes that’s hard to remember when we drink the same coffee every day – even if you shop at Starbucks, Seattle’s Best or Tully’s, it’s the same coffee – they’re owned by the same people.
BC roasts Dillano’s Dark, which means that it’s really exceptionally bitter. Some people like their coffee bitter like that – personally I’m more of a fan of sweet coffee than bitter coffee. Dark coffee is like dark chocolate – only some people actually like it.
But if you’re not a fan of bitter coffee like that, there are plenty of options for you. If you just need a cheap coffee jolt, go for the cappuccinos out of the machines in the hallway by the cafeteria – it’s the closest you can get to an espresso shot that doesn’t taste odious.
But if you’d rather have a sweet mixed drink, I think the best way to go is with a white chocolate mocha from the C building coffee stand or an extra-sweet Irish Cream latte from the R building stand.
The white chocolate mochas are overwhelmingly sweet, so unless you really love white chocolate this might not be the drink for you – but if you’d rather have sweet than bitter this is the way to go. It offsets the bitter coffee so perfectly that it creates a lovely mixture of sugar and espresso. Although this drink is so sugary that it does tend to give you a sugar high as well as a caffeine buzz. Double whammy!
The Irish Cream latte from the R building stand is not as sweet as the white chocolate mocha – you can actually taste the coffee – but it is every bit as delicious. This is my favorite drink available on campus. It’s slightly sweeter than vanilla but not as sweet as white chocolate, which offsets the bitter dark roast just beautifully.
But you have to make sure to get it extra sweet or it’s not enough flavor and the roast overpowers it. I theorize that the campus coffee places put one pump of flavor fewer than other places – i.e. two pumps in a tall rather than three. I usually order a four-pump latte just to be safe.
Of course, if dark roast Dillano’s really doesn’t do it for you, there’s the 148th Ave coffee shop by the gas station – perhaps a ten minute walk from most places on campus. It’s easy to access and they use a different, milder roast.
Maybe you aren’t a coffee drinker at all – in my opinion, the best thing the coffee stands on campus makes is their Italian Soda. They have this drink perfected to the highest levels of nirvana. I drink a large one every day because they’re just so, so, so delicious. I recommend them to anyone with taste buds – there’s no way you could try one and not love it!
If you’re one of those people who loves dark chocolate and dark roast, you can buy special BC Dillano’s roast in the café in the C building – and every time you buy one you donate money to fund the Soup for Study program, which provides free soup in Student Programs on certain days of the week.
So basically, whether your taste is bitter, sweet, or anything in between, somewhere on BC or nearby you can find something that satisfies your coffee craving. If you’re one of that tiny minority of Seattlites that isn’t addicted to coffee – go try an Italian Soda. Right now.