As finals season fast approaches, our collective need for regular caffeine fixes has shot up. Fortunately, Roger Berkeley is on hand with the top five coffees in UCD to keep you awake during those long hours of study!
Spilling out into the voluminous atrium of the UCD science complex is the puntastic science building restaurant, Pi. The restaurant is the campus home of Nico's coffee, specially designed with the right chemical compounds to boost your productivity. The restaurant also caters to your gustatory needs with cheap, healthy, and tasty solutions for breakfast, lunch, and dinner: ideal for the student budget. A relaxed atmosphere to hold a lunch-time group project meeting, it's also a short walk from the library and UCD's relatively-undiscovered chessboard. In the evening, you can hear the tinkling practice of the Ad Astra music scholars practicing on the fourth floor, if that sort of thing is a catalyst for digesting your coffee better.
Exercise is key to boosting productivity, but why not go one further and stop into the Poolside Café for a caffeine-infused delight? Top up with a caffeine shot before you take on the weights in the gym upstairs or pig out with a sandwich or pastry after a dip in UCD's olympic swimming pool. Ideally located in the New Student Centre close most extra-curricular events, this is the ideal spot for the wind-down coffee - or the post-break re-energiser! Having trouble staying awake during an SU-backed rents protest outside a management meeting? Poolside Café and their tasty coffee is only a few steps away, and there are no plans to hike the prices any time soon!
After the recent takeover from the Quinn staple, Starbucks, the South Dublin, Storbocks-toting stereotype is being updated with a standard variance of flavoured water and home-made pastries. After accounting for the discount in prices for these tasty beverages and snacks, we are projecting an increase sales, so make sure to get to the top of the queue for an optimal user experience! Coffee House spills out onto the second floor of the new Moore Centre, with comfortable multi-tiered seating. Also effective as a quick re-energiser during a break in class!
We're all there to get our chicken fillet rolls anyway, so why not save time (and money) and get a cheeky latté on the go from Centra? While the selection is significantly more limited, the taste is just as good. Served by the finest hands on campus (your own), this option is ideal for the student who wants more control over her coffee - as well as her time and money. There is an abundance of food options to accompany your caffeine refueling: the deli offers a range of rolls, wraps, pizzas, and burritos, while the shop contains anything a student on a budget could want! Have your Centra coffee at lunchtime or on your grocery run between assignment deadlines!
This café won't win any awards for its name any time soon, but there is a case to be made for the coffee served here being the best on campus. Those of us with a particularly sweet tooth can testify to the extra-chocolatey taste of the mocha that some may associate with that taste of courtroom victory. The Law Building has had many caffeinated partners since it opened in 2014, but this non-branded outlet is evidence that all chains are, in fact, equal before the law school. The seating area isn't the most luxurious (or should I say, lug-jury-us?) and the study areas are criminally loud, but beyond all reasonable doubt, the €1.50 pour-your-own Americano drink is perfect for the law student with an over-burden of proofs. On the balance of probabilities, the Court rules this café as being a worthy of your custom!
There we have it: the top five coffees in UCD! How many have you bean to? Disagree with our picks? Be sure to give me a roasting in the comments for the ones I missed!