STiR coffee and tea magazine

24 STiR coffee and tea | 2026 Quarter 1 Spring (Mar/Apr/May) T By Fionn Pooler Convenience Coffee Takes Over he coffee industry is always changing, adapting to new trends and learn- ing how to attract new customers. A striking example of this is the surge in popularity of drive-thru coffee chains over the past decade. The concept of a coffee shop with a window that enables drivers to pull up and order without leaving their cars is not new, and chains like Starbucks have had drive-thrus connected to many of their stores for decades. But the modern iteration is at a whole other level, with 7 Brew Coffee, Scooter's Coffee, and Dutch Bros Coffee all growing at breakneck speeds around the United States. The field is becoming crowded, to the point that smaller brands are being swallowed: In January 2026, Dutch Bros acquired the 20-unit chain Clutch Coffee for $20 million. While Starbucks tries to reconnect with its coffeehouse roots, and other established chains like Costa Coffee continue to struggle, upstart drive-thru brands offer a different proposition. Their pitch is speed, friendly service, and customization that leans heavily on indulgence. Based on their incredible growth over the past few years, it's a pitch that seems to be resonating. Convenience coffee brands such as Dutch Bros, 7 Brew, and Scooters use customized, colorful drinks, friendly service, and social media to attract Gen Z consumers, driving massive sales spikes. Photo credit: Dutch Bros As a result of Scooter's famously fast customer service, sales grew 114.5% between 2021 and 2023. Photo credit: Scooter's A Short History of Drive-Thru Coffee Restaurant drive-thrus have been around in some form since the early 20th century. They began to catch on in the 1950s and became a fast food sta- ple after being taken nationwide by chains such as McDonald's in the 1970s. Drive-thrus focused on coffee came along a little later. In 1990, Jim Roberts opened Motor Moka, widely regarded as the world's first cof- fee drive-thru, in Portland, Oregon. Starbucks had opened its first location in the city just a year earlier, and Roberts told the Willamette Week in 2017 that at the time, the chain wasn't interested in drive-thru. "They said it was because they had built this culture around the coffeehouse experi- ence," he explained, "and they didn't see how peo- ple could have the coffeehouse experience inside their Buick." That soon changed. In 1994, Starbucks began adding drive-thru infrastructure to many of its lo- cations, and by 2005 had over a thousand drive-th- ru stores across the US. In 2018, four out of every five Starbucks locations had a drive-thru. Drive-thru coffee was especially popular in the Pacific Northwest, where in the 1990s hundreds of tiny espresso stands opened in parking lots and next to gas stations. This is where Dutch Bros got its start, first as a coffee cart in Grants Pass, Or- egon, in 1992, and then two years later as a drive- thru. Since then, it has expanded across the US, and 7 Brew, Scooter's, and other brands like Black Rock Coffee Bar (which also began in Oregon) have followed suit.

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