The Kent community is overflowing with a wide variety of coffee spots and everyone seems to know their go-tos and no-gos. In a poll of 100 undergraduate and graduate students at Kent State, we found the best and worst coffee spots around the area. 

The poll focused on 10  coffee spots in and around campus. .Bent Tree Coffee Roasters, Tree City Coffee & Pastry, Scribbles Coffee Co., Last Exit Books & Coffeeshop, State Champs Coffee, The Cleveland Bagel Company, George T. Simon III Cafe (located in the architecture building), Starbucks (located in the library), Einstein Bagel Bros. and Dunkin. 

Some students completed an anonymous survey of 22 questions online while others were asked in-person. Each student revealed their favorite and least favorite coffee shop. 

Downtown Kent’s Scribbles Coffee. Co. comes out in first place receiving 37 votes for students’ favorite coffee shop. Scribbles additionally won the categories for the best tasting coffee (33.3%), the best environment (42%), and shortest overall wait time (33.3%). 

When asking students what they enjoy most about Scribbles Coffee Co. they bring up the atmosphere, location, customer service, and quality of the shop. Students state the staff is very nice, the atmosphere is cozy and the drinks are relatively cheap and great tasting.  

“I am partial to Scribbles,”a student says “Their coffee is cheap and they have a wide variety of options for drinks. Their food menu is small but all of the snacks they do provide are tasty and fresh. The environment is great for studying or quiet chatting with a friend with warm, dim lighting and lots of cozy seating,” 

Some students disagreed. “I stopped into Scribbles one time for some water and it cost like $4 and I am never going there again” one student says. 

Second place  is Last Exit with 21 votes overall. Last Exit won  best place to catch up with friends (45.8%),  to go on a date with someone (62.5%) andbest place to study (37.5%).  Respondents  seemed to think that Last Exit cultivated a good ‘vibe’ for students, allowing them a great place to be able to hangout and potentially get some work done especially with their later hours. 

 Last Exit also received the most votes for the least expensive menu (41.7%) which was echoed in the responses students gave.

”Last Exit is always good, their menu is not huge, but what they have is always delicious.”one student says in their anonymous survey response.  “[It’s a] great environment for creatives, especially with the books, music and other forms of media. Comfy, cozy, decently priced and friendly,” one student says in their response. 

Other students warned coffee lovers, “Last Exit is great to hang out in, but their drinks are inconsistent and the  wifi is awful, be prepared to use a hot spot.”

The Cleveland Bagel Company comes in third, although it did not win any specific categories. They received 15 votes for the best coffee shop. The highest percentage they received was the best tasting food (33.3%), falling right behind Einstein Bagel Bros (41.7%). 

“I like Cleveland Bagel company, the food and coffee was good and the place is very cute,” one student said in their anonymous survey response. According to the survey, The Cleveland Bagel Company offers good food that’s close to campus.  

Students say the two worst places to get coffee include the library Starbucks and Dunkin. 

Starbucks received 44 votes for the worst coffee overall and Dunkin received 20. Starbucks got the most votes for the most expensive (66.7%), the worst environment (50%), the longest wait (70.8%), the worst place to go on a date (50%) and the worst place to study (41.7%). 

Though some students echoed that Starbucks allowed many options that were not coffee-based, the environment and wait time outweighed the drink options. 

Dunkin received the most votes for the worst tasting food (33.3%). Dunkin also garnered the most votes for the cheapest coffee shop (41.7%). 

“Dunkin is my least favorite. [It] feels like walking into a robot factory, [it] always messes with my stomach, [and it’s] not cozy like a coffee shop should be,”a student says in their anonymous survey response. According to students Dunkin is an unreliable option for a coffee fix. 

Locally owned shops create the cozy and quiet atmosphere that students are looking for while also providing good and unique coffee.