Welcome to the neighborhood Peet's Coffee! On behalf of the entire Western Contra Costa community that stretches far and wide from the Carquinez Bridge to the Albany border, we sure do enjoy having a Peet's Coffee with a drive thru no less! Not to mention having a huge airy indoor space that's perfect for hanging out and working on one's laptop which can be done in person, once again, and having a decent if somewhat basic outdoor patio area that is at the very least filled with a number of clean chairs, tables and umbrellas. I have to admit that on my many journeys up Interstate 80 when I saw the huge electronic sign announcing a new shopping center with a Safeway store and Chase bank, what excited me the most was the new Peet's Coffee location that it was being announced. Of course there are additional locations in nearby Pinole and in El Cerrito, but both of those locations are old news, not to mention parking at both of those locations are insane, and neither have no drive thru for easy access. I credit the Peet's Coffee company for making the announcement of the grand opening date of this new location via email to everyone who signed up for their regular email newsletter or their Peet's app. The fact that they were giving away complimentary 1/2 pound of freshly roasted coffee beans with any beverage purchase with your order on their opening day only made me want to visit even more.
Of course, since it was a Monday, I seriously had to consider whether it was worth it to drive all the way out to the new Hercules shopping center off the corner of Willow and Sycamore Avenues, which took years to get approved and build once and for all. But I thought in the times we are currently living, why not get in my car and drive all the way to Hercules and support a new franchise choosing to open a new and much needed location in an area that could certainly use it. As it turns out, by the time I got there on a Monday afternoon at 1 p.m., there was nothing to be worried about as the place was certainly busy with customers, employees and managers alike buzzing around. Plus, I was more than happy to see customers not only outside enjoying their coffee drinks on their outdoor patio, but sitting inside in an area with comfy chairs and tables that allowed it. The line on the first day didn't take too long and they had a bag of coffee beans both grounded and whole beans, your choice, of their Single Origin Nicaragua Las Hermanas Medium Roast. Anything that's free with a check-in I'm sold and the fact that this roast had a nice milk-chocolate sweetness along with nutty and brown sugar taste made it all worthwhile. In order to receive my bag of beans, I still had to order my beverage and although the menus inside this new location of Peet's has all of their menus on television screens, which makes ready super easy, for some reason these new menus don't feature their entire menu, of which I had to go to my Peet's app to see what I was interested in ordering.
Although I think Peet's Coffee is rich with flavor, I am always down to order one of their Ice Blended Drinks, which also are called Javivas, and were originally called Frappes, when they first came out way back when. Their Blended Ice Chocolate Caramel Swirl with coffee topped with whipped cream is creamy and sweet delight. This is one just five drinks they have under the blended coffee drink section of their menu, they also have two blended iced tea drinks and three blended iced coffee-free caramel, all of which are perfect for coffee lovers and shake lovers alike. What's not so perfect is that through the app and the menu at Peet's substitutions and specialized orders are just not possible at this Peet's location. Perhaps because they're still new or perhaps because this is a company-wide mandate, at least through the app you cannot make your own drink with you're own choice of ingredients. At other coffee vendors and other locations of Peet's this seems to be a right passage to specialize one's order, especially when it comes to blended drinks. They do have a Members Only special menu on the Peet's app but there are no blended drinks on that app, and when asked the staff at the Hercules location said it's not allowed to blend an iced drink off that menu. Hopefully this will change with time and experience. What is great about this new location, is that Peet's is going all out to make sure loyal customers show up with extra drink discounts and special BOGO deals when you check in on your app during a set amount of days. I can't think of any other Peet's location doing this for your grand opening, which goes to show that Peet's truly committed to this new locations, and we the local citizens should thank them and their hard working crew how happy we are to see them here thriving in Hercules with our loyal customer satisfaction. read more