The beginning of February is the season of love, romance…and good coffee. On a cloudy Friday afternoon, Storm and I decided to meander our way over to the Driftway to visit our one true love: Dunkin Donuts. You may recall our thorough, wallet-emptying Winter Menu review; however, there’s been more positive buzz around this new Dunkin Valentine’s Day menu than any specialty Dunkin menu in a long time!
Naturally, we knew we had to fulfill our responsibilities as Dunkin loyalists by reviewing all of the new drinks and snacks from this splendid Valentine’s selection. We’ve written this article to include our direct first impressions of each drink, as well as our post-sip reviews and thoughts. Our comprehensive, brutally honest, worst-to-best ranking is below–we recommend enjoying a Brownie Batter donut during this read (if you know, you know).
NUMBER SEVEN (WORST): Buff Chai
Storm: “This one is scaring me…There’s stuff sitting at the bottom. That’s disgusting. I like chai, but only the Starbucks one.” *sips* “It just doesn’t taste good. It tastes like you’re taking a spoonful of nutmeg. 1/10.”
Maddie: “You guys are LUCKY! I love this newspaper, because I HATE chai. I don’t want to drink this…” *sips* “It’s SOOOOO gross. It is SO sweet. It’s like chai times 5,000…vanilla and cinnamon but make it horrible. 1/10.”
Xavier Frasu, Sophomore: “It tasted like gingerbread… expired.”
Once again, Dunkin has tried and failed to make an edible chai latte. Similar to the winter chai, the Buff Chai has so much unneeded syrup and milk, causing it to become thick and not fun to drink. As pictured in the attached photo, there was also a mysterious black additive sitting at the bottom of this drink–not appetizing in the slightest. Please do yourself a favor and avoid all unmodified chai at Dunkin.
FINAL RATING: 1/10
NUMBER SIX: Chocolate Covered Strawberry Daydream Refresher
Maddie: “My queen, Sabrina! I’m hopeful about this one because we both don’t like the Daydream, but this looks good.” *sips* “Mmm, no. The cold foam is good. That tastes weird, doesn’t it? It has a weird taste to it. They put way too much syrup in there. It’s better than the regular Daydream, but I’d still never buy this drink intentionally. 3/10.”
Storm: “This one looks disgusting. Aesthetically it looks good…but it sounds bad.” *sips* “EW. The strawberry is weird. It tastes like sour strawberries. Actually, that’s worse than the chai. It’s SOUR. 1/10.”
Bren Matthews, Senior: “This one’s weird. Unexpected. It’s not horrible, but I definitely didn’t expect this, so it’s not great. That gets a 6/10.”
Elena Riedel, Junior: “Like a 5/10… I’m not gonna spit it out. I’ll drink it if you don’t want it, but like… I wouldn’t pay money for this.”
Now you know how we feel about the Daydream refreshers… not great. Nevertheless, we were hopeful for this combination, because who doesn’t love chocolate-covered strawberries? However, the awfulness of this refresher overpowered the potential of this flavor combo. There was so much strawberry syrup in this drink that it had an oddly sour taste, and the delicious chocolate cold foam could not save it. If you’re gonna try this drink, we recommend ordering it with less concentrate…or reconsidering your choices.
FINAL RATING: 2/10
NUMBER FIVE: Cocoa Cloud Latte
Maddie: “It has chocolate cold foam added, but I’m not seeing that…” *sips* “It’s very milky. It’s basically milk. Is that not just milk? It just tastes like caramel milk. I think I need a little more coffee in my coffee. It’s not bad, but I would like more coffee. 5/10.”
Storm: “They didn’t put cold foam on this…I think Bren got this before; it’s literally just milk. His was even worse; it was literally white. 4/10.”
Bren Matthews: “I can’t taste the chocolate. It’s all right. Tastes exactly like a Dunkalatte. That will get a 7/10.”
Khali Rahman: “Oh dis an 8/10–yeah this is actually good.”
Honestly, this drink had potential–caramel chocolate latte with chocolate cold foam is a crazy delicious combination…when made correctly. However, our latte had no cold foam on it and was extremely heavy on the milk. It was basically a cup of milk with some chocolate syrup. When made correctly, we think this drink could be delicious; however, there are so many better options on this menu, so it’s not really worth the risk.
FINAL RATING: 4/10
NUMBER FOUR: Sweet on You Latte
Maddie: “I don’t like coconut flavoring at all, so I don’t think I’m gonna like this…but I’ll give it a shot. It looks good.” *sips* “Yea no, I just can’t take the coconut aftertaste. The latte I think is good. If you like coconut, it’s a good amount of sweet. 4/10.”
Storm: “I’d drink it, but it’s eh. I’d say 6/10.”
Maddie is not a coconut fan, so we will be going off of Storm’s opinion here. As a lover of coconut, I was very intrigued by the thought of combining it with coffee. Upon trying it, it wasn’t awful like that strawberry one, but it wasn’t amazing. It really was just a mid-range drink, even as someone who likes coconut. So maybe it will be sweet on you, but it was not sweet on us.
Final Rating: 6/10
NUMBER THREE: Blush Spritz Refresher
Storm: “It’s exactly the same as a strawberry dragonfruit refresher, and it has sparkling water. It is good, but it’s just a normal refresher…they didn’t add anything. It’s not original. 9/10.”
Maddie: “Yeah, they didn’t add anything. I will say it’s a little heavier on the strawberry…it’s good though. I’m gonna give it what I’d usually give a strawberry dragonfruit refresher, BUT, it’s not original. 9/10.”
Don’t be fooled–this drink is basically a Strawberry Dragonfruit Refresher with sparkling water, but they nixed the dragonfruit flavor. Nevertheless, this was a refreshing addition to the refresher menu; if you aren’t in a coffee mood, this is a nice drink to start your morning with. However, this wasn’t exactly a unique addition to the menu.
FINAL RATING: 8/10
NUMBER TWO: Caramel Chocolate Shakin’ Espresso
Maddie: “I’ve gotten this drink before, and it’s delicious.” *sips* “MmmmmHMM, MmmmmHMM, that’s really good…I do really enjoy it as a nice caramel-chocolate balance. You actually get both flavors AND they’re not sitting at the bottom, because it’s shaken. 9/10.”
Storm: “I agree. As someone who likes sweet drinks, this isn’t like sweet sweet, but if I was feeling a coffee, then I’d grab this. 9/10.”
For bitter and sweet coffee lovers combined, this drink was a good mixture of the two. The sweet caramel and chocolate were nice, but not overpowering. Though it isn’t the most outstanding or unique concept, it always makes for a lovely yet simple mix.
Final Rating: 9/10
NUMBER ONE (BEST): Toxic Ex-presso
Maddie: “The Dunkin gods blessed me up by accidentally giving us a medium! This one is a mocha…we’ve been mixing this for a long time, all the stuff is at the bottom…” *sips* “I love that. Mocha and raspberry are a godlike combination. MmmmmHMMM. It’s the best coffee we’ve had today. 9/10.”
Storm: “MMM. I wouldn’t have it over the Berry Bliss, but I’m also just a refresher person. I’m glad that this one is the biggest size! 9/10.”
Though it’s coined as “toxic,” I would say this was probably the drink that I was least likely to throw up thinking about. The sweet raspberry mixed with the bitter coffee taste made for such a delish relief on my tongue. It was to our delight that this was the one drink they accidentally gave us a large size for. Even though it was an EX-presso, the relationship lasted a bit longer than expected.
Final Rating: 9/10
Well, that’s a wrap on our review! Overall, we found this menu to be a lot more concise than the winter menu, and it definitely had some great highlights. As iced drink people, we appreciated the wide variety of iced drinks and coffees; some of them, like the Shaken Espresso and the Toxic Ex-presso, were among the best coffee flavors we have ever had from Dunkin! So, hop on over to Dunkin for a little self-care drink and donut before the specialty menu changes on February 17th… and if you love yourself, do not order the chai. Happy Valentine’s Day from your favorite Dunkin addicts!