Culpepper's

Actually, I don't know if I spelled that right.


From my current Worcester residence, I often will choose to pick up the pike in Auburn instead of 146 for one reason: the Starbucks on rt 12. After all, we're very much into Iced Tea Lemonade season here.


Today, I was feeling a little daring and decided to not only take 146 to the pike, but to also take a drive-thru one of several "independant-yet-not-boutique" coffee options Worcester has to offer. "Independant" in this case meaning not Dunks or Sbux, and "not-boutique" meaning less trendy and more homey, with less chance of boys in tighter jeans than me. See also: Boston Donuts (home of no fewer than 12 flavors of iced coffee), Go Nuts for Donuts, Donut Express, etc.


Getting into the drive-thru line at Culpepper's was sketchy enough - or at least the pickup truck behind me seemed to think so because he had to slam on the brakes when I omitted my turning signal and rolled into the parking lot on two tires. Once in line, I noticed a few things that struck me as odd. 1. The menu was nowhere to be seen. I finally saw what looked like it could be a sandwich board type of setup behind some landscaping, but the words were illegible. 2. I had to ring a doorbell at the window for service.

I took my best guess, and ordered a large iced coffee w/ skim & 2 sugars. $2.39, so similar price point to my standbys, and the large was about the same size as a medium at dunks. However, minus points for that definitely NOT being skim milk.