I’ve never been a fan of the west coast. Los Angeles and Salt Lake City are just not my vibe. Maybe I could get behind Las Vegas, but even that city is a stretch. However, the west coast does have something I’ve always wanted to try but never been able to get my hands on here in the midwest: Dutch Bros. 

Their menu consists of coffees, energy drinks, teas, lemonades, sodas, chai and more. Similar to Starbucks, the place where most of my family’s credit card bills go courtesy of my dad’s credit card, Dutch Bros offers a variety of drink options even for our non-coffee lovers (although I can’t relate)! Being a coffee lover myself, I had to try this unique west coast experience, along with In-N-Out of course. My Arizona Thanksgiving break entourage wouldn’t be complete without an iced coffee and greasy burger in hand while hiking the Grand Canyon. Kidding! I didn’t hike the Grand Canyon. Not this time at least. 

Anywho, my review begins on the overall ordering experience. At Starbucks I typically order my drink beforehand through their mobile app so that when I drive to the Starbucks my drink is already ready. Ordering online saves me the hassle of wondering if the worker mistyped my drink order or if I accidentally said something wrong. At Dutch Bros I would either order at their drive through by talking to a worker standing next to the window of my car, or I would order at their walk up window and sit outside waiting. Unlike Starbucks, Dutch Bros does not have indoor seating or any indoor space to grab your drink, they simply call out your name when it’s ready and you grab it.

I would probably give the points to Starbucks for offering an indoor seating option. It makes sense that Dutch Bros is outside because of the nice west coast weather, and you can order on their mobile app, but I do prefer walking inside and just grabbing my drink that’s waiting on a counter. I like saying hi to the workers and the welcoming atmosphere inside most Starbucks locations, especially the downtown Arlington Heights one because they know me and my mom by heart. 

The next part I’ll talk about is the drink options. Although I only had Dutch Bros a handful of times, I was very impressed with their wide variety of drink options. I tried their chai, coffee, and their energy drinks. Since my go-to summer drink at Starbucks is a venti iced strawberry acai with lemonade and no berries, I have to applaud Starbucks for their fun refreshers. I wasn’t able to find something like their refreshers at Dutch Bros, but I will say the Dutch Bros coffee combinations are really good. I think that the taste of Dutch’s coffee is a bit better than Starbucks, but overall Dutch Bros gets more points due to a variety of options on their menu.

FOOD! I love food. It’s one of my favorite things. When it comes to food, Dutch Bros is severely lacking in that department. I think that they have maybe a few muffins here and there, but nothing that even remotely compares to Starbucks food. Now I obviously wouldn’t survive off of Starbucks food as my entire meal, but their food is good when you need a pick me up in the middle of the day. I find it a bit disappointing that Dutch Bros has little to no food options when their drink menu is so well-rounded. 

I think I’ve hit on the main aspects, but there’s definitely more to be talked about when I ultimately spend $400 on a plane ticket so I can drink some overpriced west coast coffee again.