Dunkin Donuts some thoughts

BennyBlanco said:
I have heard canadians wax poetic about this junk for years on the internet, and recently found one near me in NJ. It's actually worse than dunkin to be honest.
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Similar to what the OP said about Dunkin', Tim Horton's coffee, and donuts, have fallen far, far from grace. Blame the Brazilian corporate overlords for that. You can take the word of a Hamiltonian.
 
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Vier said:
The average donut shop in America sucks donkey balls.

We can't even accomplish being fat-asses in the correct manner.. :messenger_neutral:
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It's because people view donuts as not worth the premium.

In my mind, if I'm getting a donut it's only once a very long while so I'll gladly pay more for something good. Dunkin' Donuts in its current form is no better than store-bought when it comes to donuts, though it has the advantage of variety.

As someone who's lived in the Boston area my entire life I'd much rather go to Kane's or Donut King.

It sucks when companies only chase the bottom line. Huge institutions lose everything that made them special in the first place.
 
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The Dunkins near me have some great desserts and coffee, but yes their donuts now suck. Thankfully there's a Krispy Kreme bakery and store down the street from me as well. I can watch the donuts go through their factorio deal, off the assembly line, and right into my box fresh.
 
I used to enjoy a good donut... until I realized just how truly expensive those damn things really are. When you're a child, you can burn off 1200 calories in 30 minutes, but I know that aging-gaf knows just what I'm talking about.

These days and from my gathered experiences with specialty donut shops, these places all have the same problem. They all try way too damn hard to justify their existence. All but about 6 styles of donut are totally useless. That's right, you can pack away your cap'n crunch milk glaze monstrosity. It's got nothing on a basic powdered donut with fruit filling or the chocolate donut with cream filling. Basically, nothing beats the basic donuts especially a fresh glazed. The rest are just pretenders dressed up to convince you that you need that local donut shop, but all they really need to do is just focus on keeping fresh batches of those 6 donut styles and make a good pot of coffee.
 
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StormCell said:
These days and from my gathered experiences with specialty donut shops, these places all have the same problem. They all try way too damn hard to justify their existence. All but about 6 styles of donut are totally useless. That's right, you can pack away your cap'n crunch milk glaze monstrosity. It's got nothing on a basic powdered donut with fruit filling or the chocolate donut with cream filling. Basically, nothing beats the basic donuts especially a fresh glazed. The rest are just pretenders dressed up to convince you that you need that local donut shop, but all they really need to do is just focus on keeping fresh batches of those 6 donut styles and make a good pot of coffee.
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Maple bacon donuts are justified.
 
Susurrus said:
ITT: "Dunkin is trash, <insert local place that nobody has heard of or can reasonably get to> is so much better."
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Which lends to the point that your local donut shop/chain (whatever it may be) is probably better than Dunkin' Donuts, at least in terms of donuts and overall quality. Coffee is always arguable. Dunkin' is successful because of ubiquity and convenience, but will never win for a bakery/coffee shop connoisseur.

As much as I like the local shops, Dunkin' has that drive-thru allure. If you can spare 5 minutes on the way to work, you'll likely be able to get a Dunkin' coffee. That said, sometimes the lines are insane. A lot of people need their daily fix.
 
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SlimySnake said:
I worked at a dunkin donut that made their own donuts every night. This was like 20 years ago and i remember we would ship out donuts to all the shops in the area.

It was easily my favorite part of the job. I would hate working the overnight shift until the donuts and crossaints started getting made and that made it all worth it. Fresh dunkin donuts were way better than any of these new fancy donut shops that charge $2-3 per donut just because they make them every day.
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I think the one in Weymouth Mass still makes donuts on site. (The one near the South Shore Hospital.) I think I read that's the busiest one in the world. Admittedly it's been about 10 years since I was last there. (They were even making eclairs in house) Anyway what thread would be complete without this picture, a dunkins next to a dunkins

1c8gjrz0kzbz.jpg


The one on the right isn't there anymore but that's the dunkins near the Cardinal Cushing in Brockton on Oak street. Oh, and if I ever start my own donut shop I'm going to create a new donut called the Boston Blizzard. It's basically a Boston Cream except it gets filled with ice cream when you buy it.
 
GeekyDad said:
:messenger_astonished: Holy shit! For one cup? That's like half your daily allowance of calories. WTF are they putting in that shit?
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From their own website.


Butter Pecan Swirl Frozen Coffee with Cream - Large 1160
Cookie Dough Swirl Frozen Coffee with Cream - Large Large 1100

Now those are bathtub sized but I see people walking around with those things.

But many smaller drinks are 300-500 calories which is still a lot unless you are doing manual labor all day.
 
dave_d said:
I think the one in Weymouth Mass still makes donuts on site. (The one near the South Shore Hospital.) I think I read that's the busiest one in the world. Admittedly it's been about 10 years since I was last there. (They were even making eclairs in house).
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Despite living in Weymouth between 2016-2017 I never noticed if that Dunkin' is super busy or not. I also never went there in general. Always chose to go to the Marylou's across the street.

If they still make pastries on site, that's pretty awesome.
 
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Davey Cakes said:
Despite living in Weymouth between 2016-2017 I never noticed if that Dunkin' is super busy or not. I also never went there in general. Always chose to go to the Marylou's across the street.

If they still make pastries on site, that's pretty awesome.
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Well, they do have 2 drive throughs or they did. Admittedly now that I think about it the last time I would have been there would have been 2010 so who knows after 11 years if it's still the same.
 
AJUMP23 said:
When I was a kid in the 80s Dunkin Donuts was the bomb of a donut shop. They made all their donuts in house and had more variety than anyone else. If you heard you were going to dunkin then you knew you were getting a great donut.

Now Dunkin is a pretend Starbucks. They make their money on sugar coffee drinks and not donuts. All their donuts are made offsite frozen and then shipped to the store. No more fresh donuts from a donut shop. My kids want to go to Dunkin for a 5$ drink. I will never take them. I don't take them to Starbucks either.

Thankfully we still have some local donut shops that make fresh donuts and not special drinks. I know why Dunkin pivoted because they had their donut eaten by the Krispy Kreme glazed hot fresh donut. Which is a great donut. But my local shop with their Apple fritters is what I want more. My local shop just switched owners and I can tell the fritter is not being made by the same guy, as it was more dense. Maybe they will figure it out.

feel free to contribute.
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I agree. I loved them when I was a kid. The donuts were amazing. I live in Washington State now and there are no DD around, just Krispy Kreme and I don't care for them. I only get to have them now if I go to Vegas and when we as a family go to Florida. One of the traditions we have now is before we get on the Magic Express to go to Disney World, we stop at the DD in the airport.

Maybe it helps that I don't get to have them all the time or even when I want unless I travel but my kids actually look forward to it when we travel so they can't be that bad. They definitely aren't as good as I remember but still better than Krispy Kreme.

Lol when I was a kid, I used to get the chocolate glaze cake donut with the vanilla frosting and sprinkles or a chocolate glaze cake donut with butter nut crunch. Nowadays I can't find either when I go so I have a vanilla cream and a black coffee.

Lol even when I go to visit my friend in Vegas, he'll pick me up at the airport and we go hit DD. (We both grew up in different areas in Massachusetts where there is a DD on every corner, or used to be)
 
BennyBlanco said:
I have heard canadians wax poetic about this junk for years on the internet, and recently found one near me in NJ. It's actually worse than dunkin to be honest.
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No Canadian waxes poetic about Tim Hortons. It's still better than Dunkin Donuts though.

Rbk_3 said:
Tim Hortons sucks now. They face the same issues the OP mentioned about Dunkin. Ever since they were bought out by the Brazilian conglomerate that owns Burger King, quality has just gone down hill. Long lines doesn't mean quality. Just read through these comments, all negative.


www.theguardian.com

What happened to Tim Hortons? The downfall of Canada's brand

The coffee shop has long been synonymous with Canada, but bad press and changing tastes have hurt it – and then there was the poop incident
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
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This is some revisionist history. Tim Horton's decline in quality way preceded their merger with BK.

It's still a decent place to eat considering how dirt cheap it is though. You get what you pay for.
 
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AJUMP23 said:
When I was a kid in the 80s Dunkin Donuts was the bomb of a donut shop. They made all their donuts in house and had more variety than anyone else. If you heard you were going to dunkin then you knew you were getting a great donut.

Now Dunkin is a pretend Starbucks. They make their money on sugar coffee drinks and not donuts. All their donuts are made offsite frozen and then shipped to the store. No more fresh donuts from a donut shop. My kids want to go to Dunkin for a 5$ drink. I will never take them. I don't take them to Starbucks either.

Thankfully we still have some local donut shops that make fresh donuts and not special drinks. I know why Dunkin pivoted because they had their donut eaten by the Krispy Kreme glazed hot fresh donut. Which is a great donut. But my local shop with their Apple fritters is what I want more. My local shop just switched owners and I can tell the fritter is not being made by the same guy, as it was more dense. Maybe they will figure it out.

feel free to contribute.
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Fuck dunkin! I got two gift cards from there at the end of the school year and I just gave them to my coworker.

It's probably my least favorite chain and that is mostly because, like you OP, I was a kid in the 80s and dunkin was actually quality. The donuts are subpar and you can tell they were shipped in. The coffee is serviceable but always get it black and add what you want.

The sandwiches are the most egregious. They are fucking nasty.
 
For those of you who dont eat donuts at all (or almost never), I say skip the shitty coffee shop donuts. They might be cheap at about $1 each, but most are crap. Go bigger and better and buy a gourmet donut from a bakery for $4. Sounds like overkill since you can get 4 donuts for the same price at Tim Hortons, but the quality is 10x better. And they are bigger and denser too.

Coffee shop junk is meant for people who are always doing coffee runs or buying breakfast everyday and need a place they can get stuff cheap and fast. It's McDonalds but with donuts and coffee instead of Big Macs and fountain pop.
 
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Lunarorbit said:
Fuck dunkin! I got two gift cards from there at the end of the school year and I just gave them to my coworker.

It's probably my least favorite chain and that is mostly because, like you OP, I was a kid in the 80s and dunkin was actually quality. The donuts are subpar and you can tell they were shipped in. The coffee is serviceable but always get it black and add what you want.

The sandwiches are the most egregious. They are fucking nasty.
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I had a breakfast sandwich from there (once) and it tasted like melted plastic. Never again.
 
Almost every Dunkins around me primarily employs high schoolers and are totally mismanaged. Usually you have to wait in line for 15 just for a damn donut and coffee. Between that and the things they've dropped from their menu (they used to have a bomb-ass cube-steak, egg and cheese sandwich and a lunch Sandwich with chicken, bacon, and guacamole), I just stopped going there entirely. There's only 2 out of the dozens of them around here that are any good in terms of service and actually getting your order at a decent time.

Out of desperation I went to one last week. I was the first person in line, ordered a Sandwhich, avocado toast, and iced coffee. They gave me the coffee and walked away. I waited for 10 mins and then they came back asking if I got everything. It's like they didn't even write down my order. Then I had to wait another 10 minutes for it and they still messed it up. Stuff like that happens most of the time when I go there it's ridiculous.
 
QuantumZebra said:
...Dunkin is McDonalds of coffee/donuts.
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It's been years and years since I've had their coffee, but I do remember 30 years ago loving their coffee -- just cream and sugar. It had a strong, unique flavor. But yeah, considering what they seem to represent today, it's not hard to believe it's shite.
 
StreetsofBeige said:
Yup. Tim's stopped making stuff in house at their stores in the 2000s according to google. Their stuff is partially baked in a Brantford factory, frozen, and reheated at stores to finish it off. And glazing is done at store level. It's really no different than any of us going to the frozen section at a grocery store and buying a pillsbury box of pre-cooked desserts and sticking it in the oven. Then when its done you put on frosting yourself.

Also, on the coffee side, it's shit coffee and beans, no matter how much they market it on TV as awesome quality.

My buddy used to sell coffee beans to commercial accounts, and at the time his ranking of bean quality was this for the handful of accounts he knew about:

- Starbucks
- Second Cup
- McDonalds (cheap but surprisingly decent quality. burned by McD's bargain tier quality image)
- Tim's (garbage cheap quality, masked by people putting in tons of double double cream and sugar so they think it's good)
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I like McDonald's coffee, that's my go to now. I'm not sure if you're in Canada, but here the McCafe branding has definitely improved the things on their image quality.


Tims is also so inconsistent and never tastes the same day to day, even at the same location.
 
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