For many university students, coffee is an essential fuel to stay focused and productive. Moreover, being an italian, my goal was to find a decent espresso also at TU/e.
There are basically two available options: the canteen and the vending machines.
In the several TU/e canteens, there is a bit of discrimination: the Dutch “coffee” (dirty water) 😛 costs 0.45 €, whether an espresso costs as much as 1.25 €! Moreover, the coffee is provided in paper glasses. They are really cute but they ruin the taste of coffee.
At the vending machines all kinds of coffee cost 0.45 €. Coffee is provided in a plastic glass but without a scoop for mixing the sugar. Moreover, the machines look similar but options differ depending on the building.
In MetaForum you can choose to have a coffee with sugar or black, but it’s not possible to choose the amount of sugar or the intensity of coffee. In Auditorium, instead, you can tune both parameters. Anyways I advise against selecting the “espresso white” because it’s a macchiato of very bad quality.
Given the price difference and the plastic glass, the conclusion is easy: buy the espresso at the vending machine and not in the canteen!
If the espresso tastes three times better than the dirty water, I’d go for the espresso. Especially, if the espresso is made from freshly ground beans, instead of toner as they often use in vending machines. The machine kind often tastes like recycled coffee.