RipTide Cafe

I ordered an organic coffee. It’s not fresh. Yuck it’s old coffee. I’m dumping it out.

First off, convenient location and I love that they also offer a small selection of food items.
The baristas can be hit or miss. There’s a dark haired one (I think she might be the manager?) that’s usually there in the morning that makes an EXCELLENT latte. Other baristas, the quality goes down and there’s one that frequently burns her espresso shots.
The service is pretty slow. If there’s more than two cars in line, I skip it. I once spent 20 minutes waiting for coffee with three cars ahead of me (no one ordered food/​complicated drinks that I could see). While I enjoy the coffee/​pastries, I don’t have time to waste 20 minutes in a drive thru on my way to work — I’d rather get coffee somewhere else if that’s the case.

I had never gone here before and I decided to give it a try on my way to work a month or two ago. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t gone here earlier! It’s a sweet little place, much better than any of the corporate drive-​thru coffee places around here.
I got a vanilla latte and a ham and cheese croissant sandwich with larrupin sauce. Both were out pretty quickly and tasted great! I was impressed. I’ve been back a couple times since and have always been happy with the service and food/​drinks I’ve received. I like that they have more hot food items on the menu than most coffee places offer. They always have friendly girls working there, and the entire place just has a good atmosphere to it.

I got a Pumpkin Spice Latte and it was very tasty. The service was friendly, quick and enjoyable. I would definitely go back. Thanks!

Open on Sunday morning, saved our lives! Friendly, patient server with our indecisive group, quick service once we picked something.
The Chai Charger was a surprising treat, chai mixed with two shots of espresso, it allowed me to taste both the chai and the coffee, neither cloyingly sweet not full fisted coffee. My wife’s white chocolate mocha was good too. On a whim we added the «Strawberry and Cream Cheese Croissant». What a good choice. It was lightly grilled similar to a panini, and the local strawberry jam was just right, not overly sweet as many jams end up. We’ll probably go again next time we’re in the area.

Good waffle cones. And even taste better on a warm Arcata day. Server was very polite and cheery. They even cap the bottom of the cone with chocolate so it won’t drop ice cream on you!

Cute little drive threw coffee shop, that has good black coffee as well as mochas. The only thing I don’t like is the fact that they always have just one person working, so at 6:30 when you are just waking up heading to work and want to grab a coffee, you usually have to wait in line for a while. I wouldn’t recommend going if your trying to get somewhere. As well as having two windows with one person trying to take 2 completely different orders is not easy and you get re asked the same question a few times because they have to many orders in there head. They need two people working! But there drinks are good, so I end up going back

I’ve driven past this place for years & never paid much attention. Then one day it’s cold, rainy, & I’m too lazy to drive to either McKinleyville or Eureka for my caffeine fix, but I still want my chai.
This is a good place to get a nice HOT soy chai [not tepid like the Seattle-​based coffee place I often go to.] Priced closely to the coffee chain, but the difference here is that Riptide offers locally-​made ingredients/​products & apparently organic when possible.
Riptide offers two variations of locally made Planet Chai — either sweet OR spicy; or the more commonly available Oregon Chai. I tried the Planet Chai spicy, and while it wasn’t quite the taste for me, that was just my personal preference & not due to the barista or due to the chai itself (too spicy — lol. Guess I need to accept I am more of a sweets type of girl.) They also have locally made, organic soft serve from Straus Farms in homemade waffle cones. I didn’t try one this time around (too cold for me, but my grandbaby, a true Humboldt County kid — not feeling the cold at all — had one & loved it.)
If you are familiar w Dutch Bros, their set-​up is similar: you drive up to a window on either side of the «hut» (not sure what else to call it) to place your order. Another similarity to DB is that they offer a stamp/​punch card (buy 10, get 1 free). Don’t forget to ask for one because chances are they may forget to offer. ;-)
Buy /​support local business! I like that in addition to BEING a local place, they also do their part to support local artisans by offering locally made products where they can (Planet Chai, Straus soft serve, & I’ve heard they offer bagels from Los Bagels.) I sure intend to start buying here more often.

Decent service and decent coffee. I found that small talk made the barista’s mood improve.
It is a little drive through place with two sides like a standard Dutch Bros. We only tried the plain coffee and the barista put the cream in for us. They claim it is organic coffee and it was brewed nicely and tasted good.
I cannot comment on their food or espresso as we only tried the coffee.