The 12 Worst Drinks Dunkin' Has Ever Sold, According To Reddit

If you're looking for a quick coffee fix, a sweet pick-me-up, or some coin-sized hash browns, one can argue that there's no better place than Dunkin'. After all, America — and Ben Affleck — run on the chain, right?

The Massachusetts-born donut and coffee company has been kicking since 1950 and it's clear that its menu has expanded since the good old days of a hot cup of joe and a glazed ring. Unfortunately, that's not always a good thing. One of the benefits to a pared-down menu is that you can do a few things beautifully rather than stretching yourself to the limit, cutting corners, and not doing anything great at all.

That's where this list comes in.

We took to the agora of the internet — Reddit — to determine the worst drinks that Dunkin' has ever sold. This means we didn't rely on customized, complex coffee drink orders, but rather the standard menu fare offered by the chain. From complaints about artificial flavors to too much sugar, there are many reasons why these drinks are the worst to ever grace Dunkin'.

Designed to be a refreshing, thirst-quenching beverage (hence the name), Dunkin' created a line of drinks called Refreshers. Made with B vitamins and green tea for energy, they are currently available in Strawberry Dragonfruit and Mango Pineapple varieties. Customers can mix them with sparkling water, water, or lemonade, but some people also like to add coconut milk, oat milk, green tea, and black tea to their brew, as well, creating a customized flavor profile that can be more sweet, acidic, tangy, or creamy, depending on the add-in of choice.

One major issue many people have with the Strawberry Dragonfruit Refresher is that it is sweet. Like, syrupy-sweet. One Redditor commented that they thought it tasted more like Kool-Aid than an actual handcrafted drink, with a cheap artificiality to it. Other remarks compared the Strawberry Dragonfruit Lemonade Refresher to both lipstick and rubbing alcohol. Maybe the chain should stick its strawberry sweet flavor to summery baked goods rather than syrupy drinks.

Not only is the Candy Bar Latte (or Candy Bar Frozen Coffee) one of the unhealthiest drinks you can find on the Dunkin' menu, but, according to Reddit, it's not even all that good. The limited-time beverage was a coffee drink for people who really, really don't like coffee. It was filled with the flavors of toffee, chocolate, pretzel, and peanut butter and topped with a mound of whipped cream, mocha drizzle, crumbled candy bar pieces, pretzels, and peanuts. Rather than waking you up in the morning, all that sweetness pretty much guaranteed a late-morning sugar crash.

According to Redditors, not only did this saccharine confection both smell and taste weird, but there was a significant flaw in its construction. The weight of those candy bar and pretzel pieces meant that they would inevitably sink to the bottom, especially if you ordered your Candy Bar Latte hot. The whipped cream would melt, sending those sweet morsels to the bottom of the cup, where they would become soggy and gross. Wet pretzels? Not what we want to be noshing on during our morning commute.

We know there are plenty of diehard devotees to all things pumpkin spice, and that includes Dunkin's Pumpkin Spice Latte. The drink comes both hot and iced, and it seems that the latter is the bigger offender, if Reddit is to be believed.

Topped with whipped cream, cinnamon sugar, and caramel drizzle, the sweetness of the iced version of this latte reads more milkshake than coffee drink, but detractors online have also likened the flavor profile to that of a Yankee Candle. The overwhelming perfume notes of the spices in this Dunkin' drink have made it both loved and hated by fans as it's made its return every fall since it was first released in 2007 following Starbucks' successful venture. Clearly, enough people are buying up this autumnal bevvie, even as critics have said it tasted like "someone set up a Bath & Body Works shop in my mouth," "if you licked the inside of Hobby Lobby," and has "a weird, soap-like aftertaste." Since real pumpkin spice contains none of those ingredients, we'll have to pass on this drink.

In theory, a brown sugar shaken espresso would be delicious. The limited time beverage that was released at the very end of 2024 in collaboration with Sabrina Carpenter (and stylized as a "Shakin' Espresso") was served iced with oat milk and brown sugar notes. Starbucks had a similar drink (that this writer loves), but without the clever pop star marketing angle.

Unfortunately, this drink wasn't a smash hit for everyone. It seems that this was largely due to Dunkin' employee error and distaste with the brown sugar syrup used in the drink. Multiple Reddit posts also complained that, even if they wanted to order the drink, they were frequently unable to, since the required syrup would be out of stock at their local Dunkin'.

For all those that loved this dairy-free drink, there were plenty who had more than mildly negative things to say about it, with a few colorful comments including comparing the beverage to dog water. All in all, this drink makes our list because it seemed to rarely be made as properly intended.

Even when it was all dressed up with oat milk, brown sugar syrup, and shaken until frothy, Dunkin's espresso was arguably the weakest part of our previous drink. But, when it stands on its own in its little unassuming paper cup? Well, it turns out that it's way worse.

If you're an espresso fiend who can't shell out big bucks for a machine, there's still plenty of ways to brew espresso at home without having to resort to the burnt monstrosity that is Dunkin' espresso. Perhaps all the doctoring with flavored syrups and sugary additions is a strategic move by the company since, by and large, customers think the espresso is subpar at best. Employees and customers alike state that the espresso isn't great, with the shots tasting burnt at least half the time. Another user didn't mince words when it came to their advice, "Don't get espresso from Dunk's. Life is too short. Go to a proper coffee shop to get espresso."

For those who don't know, matcha is made from the ground up leaves of green tea plants, resulting in a fine powder that's then whisked into liquid. Matcha has a grassy, earthy flavor, although varieties of matcha itself vary largely, with ceremonial grade matcha sitting at the top.

In a reveal that is likely shocking to exactly no one Dunkin' does not use ceremonial grade matcha in its matcha tea drinks. Unlike true matcha, which is simply the ground up tea leaves, Dunkin' uses a pre-sweetened version in its drinks, undercutting any subtle earthiness in favor of a more overt, one-dimensional sweetness. The drink can be served hot, iced, or frozen (blended) with your milk of choice. While matcha can be a divisive flavor, it seems that Dunkin' has largely missed the mark on this one.

Customer complaints range from saying Dunkin's matcha tastes like frozen spinach or grass, with one saying it reminded them of a dirty fish tank — not the ringing endorsement we're looking for. In fact, for those who say they like the matcha from Dunkin', most of them advise doctoring it up with various pumps of flavored syrups, which sort of defeats the point, in our opinion.

Another one of Dunkin's summertime Refreshers, the Blueberry Breeze variety, had notes of blueberry as well as juniper, making it a more sophisticated-sounding drink when it comes to the Dunkin' menu. Customers could enjoy it with iced green tea, sparkling water, or lemonade. On the surface, the drink sounds refreshing. Throw some gin in there and you've got a complex beverage to enjoy poolside.

However, while the Strawberry Dragonfruit flavor received some poor marks for being way too sweet, the biggest issue with the Blueberry Breeze was that it just wasn't good at all. Perhaps this biggest issue is that, for the fruit and vegetable juice used to color the drink and the vague "natural flavors," there was no blueberry in the beverage at all. One Redditor claimed that the drink tasted like "straight chemicals" while others said it tasted like medicine or old fruit juice. Another strike against the Blueberry Breeze Refresher? Some people thought the drink didn't pair well with anything.

Who doesn't love cookie dough (and the cookies that bake up with it)? Even if you're not supposed to eat the stuff raw, on account of the eggs and untreated flour, who among us isn't guilty of scooping out a little or licking the spoon? That tendency is why cookie dough products — fortunately, made with safe-to-eat dough — have sprung up in everything from ice cream to drinks, like the Cookie Dough Iced Coffee from Dunkin'.

The drink was made with a cookie dough flavored syrup and was topped with whipped cream, chocolate drizzle, and cookie dough crumbles. There was also an option for a cookie dough flavored cold foam. This drink is one of the newest releases, appearing in stores this past summer. An older iteration, in collaboration with Baskin-Robbins, was first released in 2014, but the recipe has changed.

However, while cookie dough as a concept is pretty popular, in execution, this drink left fans divided. One Redditor mentioned the candle-esque nature of the cookie dough syrup, while another said it tasted "like someone scraped the char off an oven rack after slightly burning some chocolate chip cookies and blended it up with some sugar and put it in my coffee." Maybe Dunkin' should switch back to the original version?

One of the most common grievances we heard from Dunkin' customers in regards to the drink menu is how artificial and chemical much of the product line tastes. As they expand their menu and offer newer beverages that capitalize on pop culture moments, it seems like less time is spent on making sure the products actually taste good (and that employees are trained to make them properly).

But, a chai latte is pretty standard, right? So how could it possibly end up on a list of some of the worst drinks the coffee-and-donuts chain has to offer?

While Starbucks has stepped up its game when it comes to chai lattes, with an Iced Cherry Chai in the spring and an Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai in the fall — Dunkin' hasn't been able to even master the original. Perhaps the issue is that the chain doesn't use actual tea in the drink at all. Instead, a chai tea syrup is the culprit for the drink that has been called overly sweet, chemically-enhanced, and tasting like "Johnson's Baby Lotion." Instead of the nuance of cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg, as stated on Dunkin's website, the syrup is sweetened with loads of cane sugar to the detriment of the drink as a whole.

We know, we know, saying the entire frozen coffee line from Dunkin' is one of the worst the company has to offer feels like blasphemy, but we're not the ones in charge of the ultimate decision, okay? Take it up with the people.

The biggest issue is that Dunkin's frozen coffee — even without any additional syrups — is sweet. So, if you're like us, who only drinks her coffee with milk (we like it with a little sweet treat on the side, for balance), then this will not be the drink for you. The frozen coffees are, in fact, made with a coffee swirl syrup, which is comprised of water, sugar, coffee, phosphoric acid, natural flavor, dipotassium phosphate, salt, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, and xanthan gum. That's a lot of additional ingredients, which may explain why critics of the drink say it tastes like "sweetened battery acid", among other insults. Instead of subjecting your taste buds to this pseudo-coffee imposter, just get an iced coffee, which is exactly what it sounds like. Blend it at home if you really need that slushy texture.

If you're unfamiliar with Dunkin', you may not know about the chain's Coolattas. Basically, they're slushies, made from a flavored syrup blended with ice. At the time of this writing, there are three available: Strawberry, Blue Raspberry, and Vanilla Bean, which is made with milk for a creamier flavor. Customers are advised not to add milk to the fruit flavors, however, as the dairy causes the syrups to curdle.

It seems, however, that unless you're a child who's been allowed to indulge in 83 grams of sugar (the amount in a medium-sized Blue Raspberry Coolatta), you will not like this drink. In addition to plenty of customers receiving improperly made drinks with added milk — cue the inevitable tummy ache — it's just far too sweet a drink. Testers at Tasting Table found the Blue Raspberry Coolatta to not only be the worst caffeine-free drink at Dunkin', but the worst drink at Dunkin', period. Even if prepared correctly, we will pass on this neon-hued beverage.

For those who want something a little stronger-tasting than coffee but prefer it to last a bit longer than a shot of espresso, there's the Americano. An Americano is espresso with hot water, while an iced Americano is espresso with cold water poured over — you guessed it — ice. The success of the drink largely depends on the quality of the espresso used, since its being diluted with water and traditionally has no milk or sweetener added to alter the flavor. Unfortunately, as you already know if you've read this far, Dunkin' does not have high-quality espresso.

Those who order Americanos on the regular know what to look for when it comes to decent espresso, and Dunkin' isn't it. "Burnt" and "bitter" are the adjectives frequently used to describe the chain's Americano. Often, the only way it's made palatable is by pumping in lots of flavored syrup which, again, kind of defeats the purpose. The Americano is so loathed by multiple people that it's even earned the unfortunate distinction of being the worst hot drink at Dunkin'.

Static Media owns and operates Tasting Table and Foodie.