If you go to the Solon Dunkin’ before school, you’ll see plenty of faces you know as classmates and police officers all stop by to grab a drink or a meal before their day starts. On Nov. 1, Dunkin’ dropped its 2024 Holiday Menu including nine drinks and four food items. The drinks include seasonal flavor shots such as Peppermint Mocha, Toasted White Chocolate, Holiday Cookie and Brown Sugar Cookie. On my trip to Dunkin’, I bought three drinks: The Cookie Butter Cold Brew, The Spiced Cookie Iced Coffee, and The Toasted White Chocolate Signature Latte. Along with that I also bought one bakery item: The Cookie Butter Donut.
Cookie Butter Cold Brew
This drink is a cold brew with brown sugar cookie flavor shots throughout, topped with cookie butter cold foam and cookie crumbles. Dunkin’s coffee is usually too strong for me, so I added three creams to a medium size of the drink. The cold foam gave a nice winter spice like gingersnap cookies. The cold brew itself was present but not too strong, and the brown sugar cookie shots paired well with the coffee giving it a sweet but still powerful flavor. The drink was much better than most drinks I get from Dunkin’, that being said, I usually get an iced coffee so I can’t necessarily compare them. I often find myself having bitter-tasting iced coffees and feeling like I have to force the drink down since I paid for it–-the cold brew was completely different though. I loved the flavor and smoothness of the drink. My only problem with the drink was the cookie crumbles that sank to the bottom. When I reached the last fifth of my drink, I couldn’t finish it without getting soggy pieces in my mouth. Overall the drink was one of the best drinks I’ve ever had from Dunkin’. I would rate it a 9/10.
Spiced Cookie Iced Coffee
This drink is an iced coffee mixed with brown sugar cookie, vanilla flavor shots and oat milk. Starting off, one immediate sign of whether your coffee will be good or not is the color, and the color of this drink was not promising. With my first sips of the drink, I thought it tasted like something I would normally get but watered down a lot, most likely because no creamer was added. Although the drink came with two different flavors, I could only taste the vanilla. This drink reminded me of both Starbucks’ Brown Sugar Shaken Expresso and Dunkin’s iced coffee with added butter pecan flavor shots. It won’t come as a surprise when I say both of those drinks were unbearably hard to drink, and I wasn’t able to finish either. The same thing happened with the Spiced Cookie Iced Coffee. The one positive thing I can say about this drink is that the first sip tasted pretty good– it’s just the aftertaste that left me not wanting more. The specific aftertaste flavor is best described by water-downed black coffee with the tiniest bit of milk. Overall, I would rate this a 4/10. Although it was bitter, it was drinkable.
Toasted White Chocolate Signature Latte
This drink is iced coffee mixed with whole milk, toasted white chocolate flavor shots and topped with whipped cream dusted with cinnamon sugar. As I said before, I tend to get iced coffees when I come to Dunkin’, so my biggest issue with this drink was the dairy content in it. Although I enjoy lattes, this drink tasted a little too milky for my liking. But, overall,it was hard to choose if I liked it or hated it. On one hand, it tasted like Mitchell’s Ice Cream’s Dark Roast Coffee Ice Cream, but on the other hand coffee ice cream is a dessert, and when I’m looking for a good coffee I don’t want it to be so sweet that it’s like a dessert. Another thing I would compare this drink to is an espresso-filled chocolate truffle. I’m still not sure if I would want to get this drink again, although it had great flavor, it tasted like I was drinking so much sugar. Overall, I would rate this drink a 7/10.
Cookie Butter Donut
This donut is a basic donut filled with a cookie buttercream and topped with a maple glaze and cookie crumbles. I’ve never had cookie butter before, but the flavors I immediately got from this were maple and cinnamon, with the cookie butter filling giving off a cinnamon-covered donut flavor. Along with those flavors, the donut also reminded me of toffee bars my mom makes every Christmas, especially the brown sugar taste of it. The donut was a little on the sweet side, and I usually don’t think most things are very sweet. I would definitely get the donut again though, and I’d rate it a 9/10.
Overall the menu items of Dunkin’s holiday menu that I tried weren’t awful but also weren’t great. I would recommend the two cookie butter items if you’re looking for a new drink to try this month.
