Stay caffeinated: The new KBT Café is ready to serve you.

It’s no secret that the scientific community at Yale is passionate about coffee. In fact, behind the scenes on Science Hill, many of the break rooms look more like coffee laboratories: this machine for the regular brew, that one for the espresso. It’s a bit complicated pleasing so many discerning palates and of course, not altogether convenient. Until now, the only alternative was to commute several blocks to downtown for a preferred cup of joe.

Beginning Monday, Aug. 29, staying caffeinated is about to get a little easier for faculty, students and staff located on the eastern reaches of Yale’s campus when a new KBT Café opens its doors to serve the Science Hill community.

“If you are a coffee aficionado and if you like great pastries, sandwiches and salads the KBT Café is definitely your place,” says Tom Tucker, director of Yale Dining retail and graduate dining.

Located in the lobby of Kline Biology Tower, 219 Prospect St., the KBT Café aims to be an inviting space where scientists and others can catch up with colleagues and enjoy one of the special brews on the menu. These will include four proprietary coffees daily: a light roast/breakfast blend, a Columbian dark roast, an espresso blend and a Swiss water-processed decaf. The café is complete with equipment for small-batch roasting, and will feature different international coffee flavors each month.

For those who crave knowledge as much as their java, the café is expected to become a venue for a variety of coffee-influenced programs and events exploring a broad spectrum of “seed-to-cup” topics covering social, economic, environmental and agricultural issues. For those who are eager to learn the art of coffee making, experts will demonstrate roasting, brewing and cupping techniques.

Whether they are taking in a program, solving problems or simply relaxing, KBT Café customers can enjoy their coffee knowing they are being gentle on the environment. In support of Yale’s sustainability goals, the café will offer coffee primarily grown and produced on farms and community cooperatives that operate with agriculturally, environmentally and socially responsible practices. In particular, the signature light roast is both UTZ and Rainforest Alliance Certified.

“Sun coffee” — which like “sun” tea draws upon the heating power of sunshine — will be roasted on site in small batches using an industry-leading solar roaster that was manufactured and imported from Israel.

“This has been an amazing collaborative effort and we are all proud of the accomplishments,” says Rafi Taherian, Yale Dining executive director.

Key to the planning and development of the new café was not only the close partnership between various Yale departments, but also the input from customers who had enjoyed the former KBT Dining Hall on the 12th floor.

“We heard from a number of faculty members whose offices and labs are on Science Hill,” says Lloyd Suttle, deputy provost for academic resources. “They spoke of the importance of a communal space where they can interact and exchange ideas with colleagues from their own and other departments. One faculty member even sent along an article explaining the important role that food plays in such communal areas.”

The KBT Café is part of a larger plan to create a space in the heart of Science Hill where faculty and students can interact socially and intellectually as well as pursue their academic work individually and in small groups. The KBT lobby has been refurbished and refurnished to provide a space where faculty, students and staff can read or use their laptops while enjoying the café coffee and food. Construction has also begun on the new Center for Science and Social Science Information in the former Kline Science Library. Faculty, students and staff will be permitted to bring their food and drink with them into the center, which is expected to open in January.

The KBT Café hours are 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday.