Lamont To Host Coffee Taste Test

This week, the College will offer a glimpse of the future—it will serve coffee in Lamont.

As part of the process of building a new café in Lamont Library, the College is conducting a student survey and hosting a coffee taste test.

Coffee tasting will be held in Lamont tomorrow and Wednesday from 8 to 10 p.m. The student feedback will be bolstered by an online survey that asks students to rank personal preferences regarding coffee and snack offerings as well as to suggest a name for the new eatery.

According to the survey website, the Lamont Café Committee (LCC) will adopt one of the name submissions, or combine suggestions for a “hybrid” name. Students whose submissions contribute to the final name will receive free coffee or tea at the café everyday for the first month it is open.

According to Pamela C. Chan ’07, an LCC member and author of the survey, many students had earlier indicated their preferences that coffee be organic and fair trade. Chan hopes to gauge the level of these concerns and others among the student body on the current online survey.

Beth S. Brainard, director of communications for Harvard College Library, said that the addition of a café in the future could alleviate some of the problems that the library presently faces. She said that food currently snuck into the building and discarded in reading room waste baskets can cause odors and pest problems. Brainard hopes that having the café would confine food to a specific area, making students less likely to bring other food into Lamont.

“We’re very proud of the fact that in old, old Cambridge, our libraries are virtually pest-free,” said Brainard. “If rodents come in, they’ll chew things, leave droppings, and cause all sorts of problems for the building as well as for the collections.”

During the transition period, Student LCC members are working on a pest awareness campaign along with Heather Cole, librarian of Lamont Library, according to Brainard.

“For the most part, having food in the library is mostly a convenience issue for students,” said Chan. “Even having just a vending machine available would decrease the amount of the food brought in from home.”

The café will open this October and will be staffed from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. with 24-hour vending and coffee machines. The café will offer sandwiches, salads and bottled beverages, as well as a variety of snack options such as energy bars, fruit and nuts, and baked goods.

Chan said that the foods were chosen not to be “too odiferous or messy.”

The cafe will be located on the third floor in the space currently occupied by the Reference Room.

According to Brainard, the café will have a “whole range of seating opportunity” from sofas to study tables, and will seat 88 people.

—Staff writer Elaine Chen can be reached at chen23@fas.harvard.edu.