In the Boston area, Dunkin Donut's reigns supreme for coffee. As a matter of fact, a friend once pointed out that the doughnut has become simply become an incidental that you buy to go with your coffee. West Coast brands, such as Starbucks, have made their presence known, but have yet to topple the Dunkin Donut's coffee stranglehold.
Evil twin #2 and I have had many discussions trying to figure out why D&D coffee is so dominant. As she has a D&D one block from her NYC apt., she has an unique insight on the subject. She noticed that the coffee in NYC is not as good as it is in Boston and that her D&D is never as crowded as the D&D'd in Boston in the mornings. Her conclusion: Higher foot traffic equals higher coffee turnover which translates into fresher coffee. ET#2 also concluded that New Englanders seem to prefer the medium roasts versus the darker roasts of Seattle.
The competition of upscale West Coast brands have forced D&D to make a few changes to their coffee. They now offer things like lattes and espresso shots. A few years ago, they introduced a frozen wonder called the Coolatta. I love the Coolatta. I love the sound of the word. I love the icy goodness and inevitable brain freeze. I love that it comes with whipped cream. I hate that you cannot get a Decaf Coolatta. The amount of caffeine in a regular coffee often gives me heart palpitations. Since I am a hyper freak anyway, my ingestion of large doses of caffeine has also been known to be dangerous to those around me. For well over a year, I had been on an e-mail crusade to convince D&D to make a Decaf Coolatta. (D&D's are franchises but the store owners must buy the Coolatta mix from D&D) Once a week, I would send an e-mail detailing the benefits of a decaffeinated delight to no avail.
In the meantime, I have been trying out D&D's new flavored iced coffee selection. (All which are available in decaf.) Below is my opinion of each flavor. Please note the following: iced coffee taste different from hot coffee and I drink my iced coffees black.
Blueberry: Surprisingly, not bad. I had a bad incident with the server being unable to get my order right and having to send it back twice, but the coffee itself was good.
Caramel: Caramel looks like sweetened condensed milk instead of the burnt sugar Toroni syrup. Try to mix well before drinking because caramel tends to accumulate on the bottom. A definite thumbs up and the winner of the survey.
Cinnamon: Starts off medicinal. As you drink more, it does gets better tasting. I think it would be better with milk or cream.
Coconut: Tastes artificial. Its like drinking coffee while smelling a bottle of Hawaiian Tropics.
French Vanilla: Enjoyable at first, but left a plastic coating in my mouth.
Hazelnut: Delightful. Very nutty and flavorful. It can be a little overpowering so it cannot be drunk every day.
Marshmallow: Could not detect the flavoring. Will have to try again since the idea of marshmallow flavoring is intriguing.
Raspberry: Absolutely disgusting. The woman gave me a medium for the price of a small. What a waste as I threw it out after drinking a couple of ounces.
Toasted Almond: Tasted like the hazelnut coffee except burnt. Milk or cream would probably mellow it.
Who said that we do not do investigative journalism at evil-twins!
3 comments:
frightening ;)
I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of Raspberry. I think that cinnamon (when done right) is my favorite. I no longer order it since my local DD mixed up the Raspberry and Cinnamon pumps and now all Cinnamon flavoring has a Raspberry (eww!) after taste.
Have you tried the new Turtle Nut Iced Latte? Is this not a cup of corn syrup with a straw in disguise. The reason why D&D coffee is so dominant is because there is really no coffee in it at all.
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