Drive-thru coffee chains are one of the fastest growing segments in the restaurant industry, according to research firm Datassential. Research from the 2026 Datassential 500 report shows that the Limited Service Restaurant (LSR) coffee segment generated $51.5 billion in systemwide sales in 2025, growing nearly 5% year over year, which was one of the best-performing segments in the entire report.
“Drive-thru coffee chains are winning because they have built into the most valuable real estate in a consumer’s day: the habitual morning visit. A highly customizable menu anchored in cold beverages, energy drinks and limited-time offer (LTO)-driven seasonal offerings—delivered in under three minutes—creates the kind of daily repetition that most restaurant formats never achieve,” Datassential said.
The report pointed to 7 Brew coffee, which grew the fastest of any chain in the report. The drive-thru coffee brand posted +139% systemwide sales growth and +87.5% unit growth in 2025. Datassential said that consumer awareness among its user base sits at 71%, ahead of Dutch Bros (67%) and Scooter’s Coffee (66%).
“What 7 Brew is doing isn’t complicated on paper: fast drive-thrus, a highly customizable menu anchored in cold beverages and energy drinks... Energy drinks have grown +186.8% on drive-thru and coffee chain menus over the past four years, and now appear on 26.5% of menus in the segment—a signal that 7 Brew’s core menu strategy is riding one of the most significant beverage shifts in the category,” the research firm said.
Meanwhile Dutch Bros added 154 net new units in 2025, growing its location count by 15.7% according to the report; while Dunkin’ added 231 net new units in 2025.
“The chains that win a habitual morning visit—without requiring a parking spot, a lobby or a long wait—are building something that compounds in ways that are hard to displace once the habit is set,” Datassential said.
The 2026 NACS consumer survey revealed what consumers think about less-common c-store offers like drive-thru. Read more in the May 2026 issue of NACS Magazine feature “Consumers Weigh In: In-Store, Online or Drive-Thru?”