Espress-OH

Columbus still lags behind many other cities of its size for good coffee shops. There are a few exceptions — Stauf’s /​cup-​o-​joe are very solid. Crimson Cup on N. High is another solid espresso shop. But the college kids at Espress-​OH (which serves Crimson Cup coffee) don’t even know what an espresso macchiato is, much less how to make one. When I explained what it was (literally translated, a «stained» espresso — a bit of foamed milk in an espresso), they charged me for a Latte (about $ 4?) for a double. I protested, and they agreed and reduced the price to an espresso (about $ 2). I then walked them through the process of how to make it. The milk frothing skills of the barista were non-​existent, and the equipment was some sort of low-​end fully automatic machine. I give them two stars because the staff was nice and tried. However, they have weak training and no understanding of espresso-​based coffee drinks, so from a quality point of view they get 1 star. In the end, I got caffeine but if you go here, I recommend getting some milky, sugary junk-​food coffee (e.g. a «mocha»), so that craftsmanship is not an issue.

Good place to grab a cup of coffee in the Union and hangout or possibly study some. It’s certainly nothing special, but they have a few specialty lattes such as the buckeye mocha and a white hoc plate mocha aside from regular coffee. They accept BuckID too of course which is always a plus.