Emerbee’s, the bee-themed cafe located in between the Multidisciplinary Research Building (MRB) and the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Building just opened up for the first time since 2020. It originally opened in 2019, but when Covid hit, it closed indefinitely until the university could employ enough students in dining services.
In addition to selling sandwiches, mac and cheese, and noodle salad, they also offer both classic Starbucks drinks and UCR Signature Honey drinks. This orange blossom honey in these comes right from UCR. The cafe works in collaboration with CIBER, UCR Entomology’s Center for Integrative Bee Research, who receives funds from the cafe.
Although there was no line, my food and drinks did take a while to order and receive. I overheard that their espresso machine was broken for a few minutes, but I think that there also needed to be more people working the cafe to get orders out faster. But the employees were very nice and kept apologizing for the delay! The wait wasn’t bad as the courtyard next to the cafe had plenty of tables shaded with umbrellas. It was a nice pocket of calm away from the hustle and bustle of campus that would be a great place to study.
For food, I ordered avocado toast. It featured crushed avocado on an English muffin with bruschetta on top. Although it wasn’t what I was expecting, I ended up really enjoying it as a quick bite in between classes because of the fresh ingredients and convenience.They also offer some more fun options like the pizzanini (a pizza grilled cheese) and jalapeno bacon mac and cheese.
For my drink I ordered both a hot and cold drink from the Signature drink menu. My hot drink was the “Stinger,” an espresso shot presumably mixed with local honey. Although it was nothing special, it was a quick boost of energy that I will definitely order again while running back and forth from my apartment to campus. My cold drink was the “Blended Vanilla Bee,” a refreshing blended drink topped with lots of drizzled honey. I did have to wait a while to taste it, as I was given a straw-less cup and had to wait for it to slightly melt. But when it did, the drink tasted like an icy vanilla milkshake. Although the honey slightly froze on top of the cold beverage, it was absolutely delicious. The two other UCR honey drink options that I didn’t try were the “Honey Cinnamon Latte” and the “Honey Steamer.”
I would wholeheartedly recommend giving Emerbee’s a try. Its Signature drinks both filled me with caffeine and pride for a program at UCR. I enjoyed knowing that I was both supporting research on campus and of course, the bees. So swing by and visit Emerbee’s on a weekday anytime from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M.
