Drive-Thru Coffee in Westminster, CO

Dutch Bros Coffee

Westminster's only Dutch Bros, out on 136th Avenue, and the one to know when the coffee run happens outside normal hours: it opens at 5am and stays open until 11pm, seven days a week. Ordering is built around the car, with a walk-up pickup window alongside the drive-thru, and the menu leans sweet and customizable, with Rebel energy drinks and blended espresso next to the coffee. Reviewers single out the staff, who write messages on cup lids and hand out a "puppy cup" for the dog in the back seat. It carries the lowest average rating of the three shops here, though on by far the largest pile of reviews.

Ziggi's Coffee

A drive-thru-only Ziggi's a minute off Highway 36, which is what makes it the commuter pick here: no lobby, no parking hunt, and reviewers say drinks come out in about a minute. The menu runs well past coffee into smoothies, dirty sodas, energy infusions and a locally made breakfast and lunch line, and a chocolate-covered espresso bean comes with every drink. It has the best average rating of the three, though the reviews are polarised rather than uniformly warm: a little over half are five stars and a quarter are one. The catch is the hours, since it closes at 5pm, well before the other two.

Black Rock Coffee Bar

The newest of the three, in The Promenade plaza off 104th, and the only one that gives you a real choice: pull through, or park and go inside. Reviewers describe a clean, modern room with a fireplace and comfortable chairs, which makes it the pick when the coffee run is really a meeting. The chain began as a 150-square-foot drive-thru in Beaverton, Oregon, and the menu now runs to energy drinks, protein drinks and all-day breakfast burritos and egg bites alongside the coffee. Two things to weigh: prices run high, with one reviewer noting a $6.85 small latte, and the rating rests on far fewer reviews than the other two.