Restaurant Review World

Choices, choices, choices!  There are so many choices out there, that sometimes just making one can be exhausting.  Take the choice of your morning latte, for example.  Even if I were to simply narrow down my numerous choices to a chain coffee shop within walking distance of my apartment, I would have two Starbucks, one Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, and one Peets Coffee and Tea to choose from!  And, I am not kidding.   You can litterally stand on one street corner and see all three coffee shops at one time.  And, the second Starbucks is about a mile north of the the first one.  Amazingly, and maybe it’s just Brentwood, but even in today’s economy, all four are always packed.

Anyway, usually I am a Starbucks girl.  I’m not really sure why.  Maybe it’s that they’re everywhere, so I’m just more used to them.  But, recently, I decided to put the three coffee chains to the test.  Who knows, I thought.  Maybe I have been going to the wrong place this whole time.  Maybe, it was time for a switch.

Since it was a hot, early October day, I decided to test one of my favorite iced drinks: the Iced Vanilla Latte.  One of the first things I noticed, is that each chain draws a different type of customer.  Starbucks seems to be for the more serious, business-minded coffee drinker.  If you hang at Starbucks, you most likely do so with tiny computer in tow.  There are often students plugging away at some difficult task, or business people worrying that the market crash may mean that this is their last coffee for quite some time.  It’s also, apparently, a great place to meet up and talk business, as there always seems to be some sort of business meeting taking place.

In contrast, the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, a company started in Southern California, really epitomizes the SoCal attitude (remember, Brittany once turned her private jet around to get a drink from the Coffee Bean).  First of all, you don’t have to place your order in another language: sizes are simply small, medium, and large.  (Short story: the first time I went there, when I first moved to LA, I ordered a grande.  And, to my annoyance, the girl behind the counter acted as if she didn’t know what I meant, and gave me a blank stare until I realized I was supposed to say “medium”.  Uhm, is that in the training manual or something?  Did she really not know what I meant???  Whatever.  I’m over it.)  Anyway, this is more where you will have girls in shorts and Uggs in line, and people tend to hang out and chat here for hours.  It’s rare to find an available seat on their patio.  In general, it seems to be a much more laid-back type of crowd.

Finally, there’s the oft-overlooked Peets Coffee and Tea Leaf.  There really is only one type of customer here, and that’s the crazy biker gang!  No, not motorcyclists…bicyclists!  Yes, every weekend there are about fifty racing bicycles parked outside at any given time, and the patio is filled with people donning spandex.  They seem to come from all over the Westside to ruin their workouts with a calorie-laden coffee beverage of some type.  Or, maybe they drink tea.  Anyway, before this day, I had only been here once.  Personally, I don’t think the service is very good - both times I ordered an iced vanilla latte, and both times, they accidentally gave me hot ones.  (This time, I caught them in the act, and they were able to change it to iced).

So, here I was, having ordered tall/small iced vanilla lattes from all three establishments, ready for my buzz-inducing taste test.  Peets was interesting.  I’m not sure if it’s because they thought I was going to have a hot drink, and then switched it to cold, but they used steamed milk to make my iced drink.  That added a sort of body and texture that I found enjoyable.  Starbucks was old reliabile.  It always tastes the same, and it always tastes good.  But, the clear winner in this challenge was The Coffee Bean.  While Starbucks and Peets uses the typical vanilla syrup, The Coffee Bean uses their own vanilla powder (they use other powder flavors in other drinks).  The powder was disolved directly into the hot espresso before it was poured over ice.  The drink tasted much creamier, and much vanilla-y-er, than the others.  The only drawback was that The Coffee Bean uses tiny, round ice cubes, and fills the cup with them.  They melted way to fast, which, towards the end, counter-acted the creaminess that came from the use of the powder.  Next time I will ask for “easy ice”, because, let’s face it, the longer your drink order, the better.

So that sums up my Iced Vanilla Latte Battle.  It can’t stop there, right?  The Coffee Bean might win with that drink, but what about cappuccinos?  Caramel Machiatos?  Or my holiday favorite, pumpkin lattes?  What drink would you like to see tested?  Let me know, and I’ll put it into the rotation.

The three locations tested in this challenge:

Starbucks: 11707 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, 90049
Phone: (310) 207-4202

The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf: 11698 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90049
Phone: (310) 442-1019?

Peets Coffee and Tea: 11750 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90049
Phone: (310) 979-7892?