The new Dutch Bros. Coffee hut (not really sure what to call it) opened in Davis today in the spot originally occupied by Caffino. This is a replacement to the Caffino drive-thru coffee spot, and this shop opened with 2 drive-thru lines. I was initially alerted to the joyous news of 24hrs of free coffee by Jenn at small group on Wednesday, and after some quick googling, confirmed that it was indeed free medium any-kind-of-coffee from 5am today to 5am Saturday morning. This morning as I did my routine 5am crawl across the floor to locate the lightswitch, I perked up at the thought of free coffee and knew it was going to be the start of a magical day. I quickly wrapped up my morning ablutions, threw on some clothes, and flew out the door.
When I had gotten there, the coffee hut was jumping with excitement. They overstaffed the workers on the first day to handle the customer volume anticipated on opening day with free coffee. Of course, coffee demand at 5:30am in a college-town isn’t very high. I pulled up in the drive-thru with the window on the passenger side, which threw me off a bit.
The drinks menu was fairly interesting. It’s not quite like a regular coffee haunt where the drink names describe the stuff inside to a certain extent (i.e. large caramel latte – coffee and steamed milk). The coffee menu reads more like the menu next door at Redrum Burger. There’s the Annihilator, the Kicker, the ER-911 (kicker with 6 shots), etc. All of the items read like they ought to come with a complementary ambulance ride with the ER.
I ended up going with a triple Kicker, which is an irish cream coffee with three shots of espresso. My first impressions were the sweetness of the drink. I usually go with low sweetener just because the more syrup they add, the thicker the consistency of the drink. For example a mocha at starbucks has the consistency of sludge at the end of the drink…not very tasty. I’m hoping that if I ever try dutch bros regular espresso I’d be more impressed. The company headquarters are in Oregon, and that’s also where their roasting facilities are. They ship to locations in 7 west coast states, so hopefully that keeps the coffee fresh when it arrives at the huts.
Since this Dutch Bros. is in a college town, I do have to look at it from the point-of-view of a student. A drive-thru coffee place isn’t going to have some of the trappings as other places, and they’ll likely attract only people who are in search of a cup of coffee and nothing more. Many of the students frequent coffee shops to study, or meet up with a friend, or curl up in a seat and read. That isn’t going to happen in a drive-thru coffee place. Just a disclaimer…
All in all a decent experience…can’t really complain when they’re giving coffee away, but I think they could do more to promote their basic coffees and regular espresso drinks. Another coffee spot in davis can’t be all bad, just one more option for students and stuff.
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