There are nine coffeehouses on campus, and all but one of them are owned and operated by Associated Students UCLA.
There is a sense that if you’ve been to one, you’ve been to them all.
This is not exactly unintentional. ASUCLA has tried to establish a discernable brand on campus ““ so at any given cafe, you can find the same line of pastries, espresso and equipment. The house coffee and its sibling brews, purchased from a private company, have been a staple for more than a decade.
But what do students think of the coffee?
We asked them this question, and the overwhelming majority said they would appreciate more variety.
About 80 percent of coffee drinkers we polled said they would support bringing outside vendors to campus. Although many think the coffee tastes fine as it is, almost 60 percent call the quality bad or average, and more than half think it is overpriced.
Simply put, a good cup of coffee means different things to different people. Offering a variety of blends, as ASUCLA does, cannot always get around the fact that brand matters. Some people would prefer Peet’s, Starbucks or a family-owned cafe to ASUCLA.
The reasonable solution is to offer outside vendors in addition to flagship coffeehouses like Kerckhoff Coffeehouse and Jimmy’s Coffee House.
ASUCLA has not considered outsourcing any of its coffee operations, although it has done so with food options by bringing in restaurants like Subway and Carl’s Jr.
Before something like this could be done, competition with existing coffeehouses would have to be taken into account, said ASUCLA food service director Cindy Bolton. If ASUCLA saw demand for its coffee go down, prices would probably have to increase.
Still, Bolton said she is receptive to student opinion. Her team is exploring the option of purchasing a second brand of coffee from a micro roaster, she said.
We encourage ASUCLA to go further than this. Try bringing an outside coffee shop to one of the lesser-frequented locations on campus ““ possibly Bruin Buzz or Northern Lights. See what happens.
Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the editorial board.