Ok, I’m not a Disney guy so maybe you can help me for my next trip. Is it possible to get great coffee in Disneyland?
Best Coffee In Disneyland – I Am Still Searching
I recently visited Disneyland and figured that the coffee would not be great, so I enjoyed my two double espressos at home before the drive down to Orange County. I was actually going to head to Hopper & Burr in Santa Ana before, but we got a slightly later start than I wanted so I just drank at home.
A couple guides online recommended the Cappuccino Cart in California Adventure, but I noticed that the espresso machine was a fully automatic one. Those machines simply cannot froth milk or create a decent crema, so I passed on that. We had Park Hopper tickets and part of me wishes I had just tried it, but ended up not leaving the Disneyland park. The coffee there is provisioned by Joffrey’s and the machine does create special Disney-themed latte art:
There is a similar cappuccino cart near the Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland but it also lacks a proper machine and I’m just too picky to throw away $5 on a bad cup of coffee.
But my wife isn’t…she loves Starbucks (poor confused soul) and Starbucks is readily available inside Disneyland. I was dispatched to Market House on Main Street USA to bring her an Americano. Prices were not that much higher than outside the park and I was able to use a Starbucks gift card to pay. The usual Starbucks pastries and sandwiches were available as well as a few special Mickey Mouse-shaped ones.
I took a sip. Same old Starbucks…
As for me, I was happy I had filled up in the morning.
CONCLUSION
For those of who appreciate third wave coffee, I’m not sure Disneyland has a great option for us…perhaps a potential new business for Disney to consider. I would have paid double for a really good coffee. But maybe there just isn’t a sufficient market for it…
By the way, there is one place in Disneyland that has tremendous coffee: Club 33. But since that is one of the most exclusive clubs in the world and I’m not a member, I don’t count it…
Have you found any great coffee at Disneyland?
“she loves Starbucks”
How have you not divorced her yet? Next thing you know she will be demanding frozen OJ at the Lufthansa First Class Terminal…
I don’t think he takes her to the first class terminal, and very wisely I might add.
She might say the ducks are silly, which would require marriage counseling.
I’m not sure why you decided this “opinion piece” needed to be published, but I digress. I ate at Storytellers, in the Grand Californian Hotel, on Wednesday. I can’t stand coffee but it was a long day, and I was chilled from the evening temperature, so I ordered coffee with dinner and it was actually pretty good. Which was supposed to be the point of this article. Finding it, not complaining about not finding it.
Oh please Greg, I just want to find good coffee. Thanks for the data point.
I hear you! I am drinking a cappuccino I just made with my own machines and beans that I buy. Same issue at Universal BTW.
Also, can Starbucks really say their coffee is freshly roasted. Really? I would join you in a class action suite to have those words removed from all of their advertising :)!
Keep up the good work on all things coffee when you travel. If you go to London let me know and I will give you some of my spots there.
@Matthew: You should ask this for Santa. You won’t be disappointed. 🙂
https://www.profitec-espresso.com/en/products/pro700
I find it really difficult to find good coffee when I’m travelling in general – but you definitely don’t go to the Disneyland Resort for great coffee. The cappuccino cart has the best coffee in park IMHO – Steakhouse 55 (RIP) used to do nice coffees for breakfast/brunch. For me, the delight from the sights, sounds, smells of being in the parks are what helps me look past the bad coffee – I also love that little seating area inside Starbucks on Main Street USA – the atmosphere makes up for the long lines to get overpriced and sub-par Starbucks.
As for Starbucks – I have a few thoughts: First of all, my wife is a Starbucks Store Manager and it provides a solid wage and benefits for her, as well as an overall positive corporate culture that has been good to her – and although their coffee is often maligned, and rightfully so, it is accessible, and more importantly, consistent. That means more to some people than you’d think – the fact that your cappuccino tastes the same in Vancouver before you leave, LAX when you arrive, and inside the Park when you need a break. Not that it is a good or even decent cappuccino, but you know what you are going to get, and I think for most people, that is enough.
I agree, about the positive aspects of having Starbucks in our lives. And, I think Starbucks also upped the industry’s game by setting a relatively high minimum bar that “premium” coffee purveyors needed to clear to be competitive. I recall it being much harder to find good coffee in local shops before Starbucks became ubiquitous in the early 00’s. Starbucks coffee really was relatively quite good when compared to the coffee landscape at that time – at least that’s what my slowly faltering memory is telling me.
Chris and Jake – good points. Thanks for your comments.