What Makes Dunkin's Coffee Milk Unique?

When Dunkin' debuted the Dunkalatte in the fall of 2024, it introduced the world to something that Rhode Islanders have savored for a long time: coffee milk. Coffee milk is so common in parts of New England that some children reportedly have a choice between plain, chocolate, and coffee milk in school lunches, but most of America hasn't heard of it. What makes Dunkin's coffee milk unique? Some canny Dunkinistas have figured out that you can use coffee milk as a dairy option in your DD drinks, giving your iced coffee or latte an extra coffee kick and amping up the richness.

Simply put, coffee milk is an analog of chocolate milk that uses coffee syrup instead of chocolate syrup to make a milk drink that is coffee-esque without being overwhelming (it also contains very little additional caffeine). Dunkin” reportedly uses a proprietary coffee extract in its coffee milk, along with whole cow's milk. That dairy option currently can't be substituted for lactose-free options, unlike most of the chain's coffee drinks. To make a Dunkalatte in particular, an employee swirls a shot of espresso into the coffee milk.

Can't get to a Dunkin' but still craving that flavor? Coffee milk is easy enough to make at home with a coffee syrup, like Autocrat Coffee Syrup, and your choice of dairy. If you don't want to buy coffee syrup, you can even make your own at home with ground coffee — just make sure to avoid some common coffee grinding mistakes if you grind your own. Combine about 3 tablespoons of that ground coffee with 1 cup each of white sugar and water in a saucepan, reduce it over medium heat, cool, and strain out the grounds. Add your syrup to milk in a concentration that makes you happy, and voila! Coffee milk on command. To really amp up the flavor, you can employ the cheap, two-ingredient trick of adding salt and cinnamon to your drink.

Coffee milk is a delicious and refreshing drink all on its own, but it really shines when you use it as the dairy component in coffee drinks as Dunkin' fans have done. Adding milk to coffee in general ups the fat content of your brew, which makes the drink taste more luxurious, and doubles down on the coffee flavor and sweetness without overpowering the drink.