7 Brew (Kokomo)
807 S. Reed RoadRoad trip time!
As our kids get more involved in skating, the road trips start to get longer and longer.
We’re in the middle of a stretch right now that sees us going to Detroit (Canton), Nashville, and Chicago (Orland Park) on back-to-back-to-back weekends.
This is the second year in a row the kids have competed in Nashville. Last year, I was on a work trip in St. Louis and unable to go with them so I was really looking forward to this year’s trip.
Competition days were Friday and Saturday so we got up early on Thursday and started the eight hour drive to Nashville. Last year when J drove it alone, she split up the drive there and got a start a night earlier after practices in Kalamazoo. They got as far as Kokomo, IN before stopping for the night.
The next morning, they found 7 Brew for the first time. When we got loaded up in the car, the goal was to get to Kokomo and stop at the same 7 Brew as our first stop on the trip.
The Kokomo 7 Brew location is on Reed Road/IN-931 near Marland Avenue/IN-22 on the east side of Kokomo. The small drive thru chain is in a very heavily commercialized area of Kokomo that used to be along US-31 before the bypass was built east of town. The Arkansas based chain opened this location just after Christmas in 2023 in a spot that had sat vacant after a commercial building had been torn down a few years prior.
7 Brew’s concept is simple. Drive thru coffee. The name originates from the original menu. 7 brews (coffees). As the chain expanded, so did the menu. It’s still only drink but in addition to coffee they do energy drinks, fizz sodas, lemonades, teas, smoothies, and shakes.
The ordering process is slightly different from a traditional coffee drive thru. There is no speaker box and menu boards. Instead, they have people come to your car window and take orders. It’s nice to be able to talk to a person but the downside is, there are no menus anywhere. You kind of have to be prepared when you pull up. Having the menu open on your phone or having a regular order will make the process go much quicker.
Once putting the order in, you swing around to the pick up area. This, and most 7 Brews have dual lanes because volume is pretty high all the time.
Just like ordering, the pick up concept is not the same as you’re used to with drive thrus. You don’t get your order from a window. There are people outside in each of the pick up lanes that will go inside, grab your order, and bring it to the car.
There is a small shop where all the drink are put together but you never interact with the actual building. There is always a person that comes right to your car.
J and the kids go to 7 Brew anytime they see one so they know what their order is. B got a Brew Lagoon off the Fizz Soda menu. It’s made with Lime, Blue Raspberry and Coconut. He also goes for the “dirty” soda by adding creamer.
J and L both got the Pixie Stick 7 Energy Drink. This combo is Almond, Orange, and Pomegranite. It apparently tastes just like a Pixie Stick. They both also do them dirty and add the creamer.
Ice cream for breakfast is OK, right? I mean, we’re kind of on vacation.
I ordered the Birthday Cake Shake. This drink is a milkshake with a cupcake flavored syrup and white chocolate sauce. It was delicious even if I shouldn’t have been drinking it for breakfast. There are no chunks of anything in the milkshake because it’s all made with flavor syrup. The milkshake was pretty thick and since I was driving, I had to let it melt a little bit before I could really enjoy it.
I don’t usually order anything when we go to these drive thrus but since we have two 7 Brews coming to Kalamazoo soon (both are under construction as I write this…one next to Chick-Fil-A on West Main and one next to Chick-Fil-A on Gull Road), I wanted to be able to write a blog post about it. I’m not really a fancy drink guy. I don’t like coffee and I tend to stick to Pepsi so there’s not a lot of things on the menu that really interest me but these things are hugely popular in every city they’re in. I’m sure they will be in Kalamazoo as well.
SW Michigan Dining 