What: Local Coffee Cafe and Music Venue

Where: Provo, Utah

When: Many visits between Jan 2020 and Feb 2023

The short of it:

Java Junkie is the beginner’s coffee shop of Provo in all the best ways. Inside you'll find high school students, cute music events, and a menu with plenty of options for the coffee drinker who doesn’t actually like the taste of coffee. Most of the baristas are that kind of half-hippy, half hipster that are hard to get a read on who make coffee that’s just barely good enough.

The long of it:

The Java Junkie menu is geared at entertaining a high school crowd while still serving the average caffeine addict. Along with a rotating set of soup and sandwich fare you’ll find prominently displayed sugared drinks with “creative” names before your eyes settle on the prices for the regular coffee and espresso options. 

Where Java Junkie earns a lot of praise is that its regular fair is priced on average $1 cheaper than the rest of Provo’s local coffee shops. You do end up tasting that difference through lack of expertise. While the shop claims on their instagram to “proudly serve Caffe Ibis Coffee,” my experience was that the baristas didn’t know their product beyond differences in roast level. 

On the drip coffee side of things they do well by keeping their batches small and machines clean. Whether you like a light roast drowned in the milk of your choice or a dark brew served black, they have it at a competitive price. Whether they’ll have it on hand is a different question. Because the menu is stretched across various foods and beverages, I was frequently told that they were out of [insert desired roast or milk add here]. The most common unstocked item was iced coffee, as the shop makes it by the pitcher in the morning and serves until depleted.

The espresso side of things doesn’t fare better. Most of the time I ordered an espresso beverage, the shot was noticeably silty with the tell tale note of a channeled puck and a dirty machine. I recommend against ordering any americanos or double shots here.

Still, it's hard to knock on Java Junkie simply because of its space and price. Located on the corner of Center street and University Avenue, it's easy to access by foot, bus, or car for university students starting their morning. And in the evening the cafe frequently becomes a venue for local music artists. The space also features a loft that once served as a barber shop called the Brier. It was closed during the quarantine and to my knowledge has not reopened. 

Java Junkie gets my recommendation not because of its coffee, but for its location and cultivation of space. Whether you're working on a school project or enjoying a bit of community, it's a good place to be.