An Open Letter to Dutch Bros Coffee

From where I live, the nearest Dutch Bros Coffee is over an hour away. If I were to travel there at any point except for the early morning, it would take me three to four times as long to get back due to traffic. Supposedly, they’re going to be putting a new location around the corner from my house, but progress has stalled and there’s no clear information as to when construction will begin, let alone the moment when the doors open.

I have admired Dutch Bros Coffee from afar for so many years because they didn’t have a location in Utah until recently. Back when I first started following them, they consisted of a series of franchises that were spread out. At the time, I at least wanted to have a taste of the coffee even if I had to make it at home. I wrote to all of the individual franchise owners in the hopes that one of them would be gracious enough to send me a bag or two of their beans. I received nothing but kindness in return for my correspondence, but I did not get the bag of coffee for which I was searching.

I waited a couple years before I decided to reach out again. This effort produced better results. I discovered that they had moved away from the franchising model. They were open to my project and promptly sent me a bag of coffee. I enjoyed every drop of the stuff and was very disappointed when I made the last cup of joe. I communicated my desire for them to open one of their locations in Utah during every step of the process. This desire was then reflected in the ensuing content I wrote about the brand later on…