When it comes to coffee on campus, students, as true deal hunters, search for coffee that is cheap but good and fast.

Xpress measured coffee cup sizes around campus and checked the prices of seven cafes to find where the best coffee deal is.

After conducting a scientific experiment comparing coffee cup sizes and prices, Xpress found that the cheapest coffee is at Bark ‘N’ Bun café, located in front of the Fine Arts building. They brew Starbucks coffee and use Starbucks cups, but charge far less. Their large cup, which fits about 2.3 regular cups (600 ml), is only $1.45.

The same size cup of house coffee will cost you $1.65 in Starbucks at Stonestown. Café 101 in the Student Center charges about the same for their coffee, but some of their cups are slightly smaller. Café Rosso, the HSS building Café, and Café Taza Smoothies and Wraps sell small cups of house coffee for 80 cents. But it is the smallest cup on campus as it barely fits one standard measuring cup (250 ml) without spilling. There is free coffee at the DC (The Dining Center in the Village), but it is only available for students on the meal plan and cannot be carried out of the dining area.

Students say coffee is a “necessity” on campus because it warms you up on a cold day and it picks you up in a boring class.

“The caffeine is awesome,” said Jon Jelenko, 19, a freshman at SF State. He drinks coffee every other day and prefers Café Rosso, because “it has a lot of variety.”

Lora Lichtenberger, 18, also a freshman, said she needs coffee after a whole day of walking back and forth to classes and partying at night. “It works,” she said.

Lichtenberger and Jelenko both are regular coffee drinkers and consider coffee on campus to be “pretty good.”

“I’m tired all the time,” complained Miles Mullin, 21, a SF State junior majoring in jazz music. “I don’t get enough sleep. Sometimes teacher’s lectures are boring and they put me to sleep. I need caffeine in my system to keep me up.” But Mullin thinks the coffee is still overpriced and said the quality could be better.

“I have a problem with the house coffee,” said Miguel Barbosa, 23, a senior majoring in visual communication. “The taste is a cheap quality, I think. I like coffee but not here."

“Coffee, coffee, it’s all the same thing,” said Hernan Oicata, 23, another senior who's majoring in Raza Studies. “It doesn’t really matter. They all have the same taste,” said Oicata referring to coffee on campus.

Oicata emphasized the importance of location as a big factor in selecting a café. He always gets his shot of caffeine by the Fine Arts building because “it is on the way to class.”

Junior Cortez, 16, who works at the Bark’N’Bun café, said that the small sized house coffee is the most popular choice among students. Bark’N'Bun, which turned out to be the cheapest coffee on campus with the biggest cups, sells about a couple of hundred cups a day, Cortez estimated. Their busiest time is around noon, he added.