Dutch Bros Coffee

Having written about over 1,000 destinations over the last five years alone, we’re rarely so disappointed by an experience that we consider throwing out whatever we’ve purchased, and maybe not writing about it – but when that happens, the same factors tend to be at play: aggressive marketing combined with mediocre recipes. Just as we were turned off by the merch-first, drinks-second chain Better Buzz Coffee and its now thoroughly underwhelming predecessor Dunkin’, we can’t describe ourselves as fans of Dutch Bros Coffee, a chain founded in Oregon back in the early 1990s. Thanks to rapid expansion, five franchised locations have opened in Orange County since 2024, and after visiting one in late 2025 only to toss their hyper-sugared drinks in the trash, we will almost assuredly never return again.

Whether you’ll like Dutch Bros depends entirely on whether you think of cafe drinks as primarily vehicles for sugar and caffeine or as opportunities for savoring complex coffee, tea, or fruit flavors. The menu consists of Rebel-branded energy drinks, lemonades, chai lattes and iced teas, sodas, and coffees, the latter mixed with chocolate, caramel, vanilla, and/or nut flavors. There are also a handful of frozen shakes in basic flavors including chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, cotton candy, and birthday cake, and fruit smoothies. Three flavors of “muffin tops” and granola bars are offered as snacks for $3.

Most drinks range from $6 to $8 unless you add $1 “extras” such as sweet cream, bursting boba, or protein milk. The latter option – also accessible in “protein-packed” lattes and Golden Eagles with caramel and vanilla – is one of multiple efforts to appeal to the chain’s “bro” customer base. Other drinks, such as the Annihilator, Shark Attack, and Double Rainbro, sometimes give off the same bro vibes, and references to “sprinks” (sprinkles) and “glaze” (thick syrup) cement the chain’s not-entirely-serious branding energy.