Yes, you read the title right, I indulged in a cup of gas station coffee (the things I do for you guys) and below I’ve detailed my experience. Spoiler alert: after drinking this, I appreciate the specialty coffee I’ve had at local shops much, much more.
On the way to the gas station I kept catching myself thinking “do I really want to do this?”, but I knew I had to. I needed a blog post. Plus, I hadn’t had a warm beverage from a gas station in something like 12 years. Back then it was some overly sweet, abomination that could hardly be called coffee. This time, however, I went with a straight-up, black coffee.
Opening the door to the “On the Run” branded convenience store attached to the Esso station I was a little scared. I walked to the back where their coffee set-up was. There was a thermos of coffee that looked desperate for some attention (judging by the thin layer of dust over the top of it). The sign next to it said that they served Seattle’s Best coffee, so I thought it couldn’t be that bad, right? I was wrong. It was bad.
Just pouring the coffee, I picked up on the stale stench that flowed out of the thermos. I immediately regretted getting a medium size. Curse my eternal optimism. Anyway, this smell translated into the taste quite seamlessly. It was old, and very lifeless. On the bright side, it didn’t taste watery, but boy, trying to pick up on the flavour profile proved to be a difficult task. There may have been a slight fruitiness to it, maybe?
Even after all of this, there were a couple positive takeaways from my experience. The coffee was at least hot which was nice. The attendant who rang me through was quite cheerful too. However, those were the only two positives I took away from this adventure. Long story short, I would not recommend unless absolutely desperate, and even then it might not be worth it.
Atmosphere: 1.5/5 (Typical gas station, but lot’s of window to take in natural light)
Service: 4/5 (Greeted upon entry, quite talkative when ringing me through)
Coffee: 1/5
Overall: 1.5/5
Matt's Coffee Chat 