Dunkin' Can't Tell Quality From Quantity With Its Latest Round Of Summer Drinks

The season of the fast food summer menu is upon us, and few are as anticipated as Dunkin's. But the new items at Dunkin' in 2026 are different from its offerings in years past. It feels like the chain is in the midst of a manic episode with the sheer volume of drinks it's been pumping out lately — but honestly, I'm here for it. Sorry if you're going through something, Dunkin', but we're all happy to reap the benefits of your mania.

From a Kylie Jenner collab to an extension of Dunkin's fan favorite, ice cream-inspired frozen coffees to lemon everything, the brand is basically rolling out a dozen iconic, summer-ready drops into one epic seasonal menu. Starting on July 8, 2026, Dunkin' unveiled 16 new drinks, and I got to try every last one. This summer, the brand is focusing on airy, citrusy mash-ups sans caffeine and some cutesy pink, candy-esque bevies à la Kylie. Dunkin' is also going back to its Massachusetts roots with the humble fluffernutter, fusing coffee, marshmallow, and peanut butter in some wicked flavorful, New England-themed drinks. So let's soak up some sun, grab our flip-flops and swimmies, and get to sipping.

To taste and review these 16 new drinks at Dunkin', I ordered them all in-store and tried each when it was fresh — literally only a minute or so old — to ensure they didn't become watered down at all. I ordered a small size of each and didn't alter the drinks in any way so I could experience them in their true form, the way they appear on the menu, and the way Dunkin' intended them to taste.

Instead of judging these drinks based on my personal preference, I judged them as objectively as possible, with a focus on their general flavor. Since most of these drinks are a mashup of different fruit or dessert ingredients, I judged the drinks based on how well the flavor combos worked in each drink, how natural and true-to-form each tasted, and how complex and interesting they were. I also focused this review slightly on how appropriate each drink is for the summer season, although this factor wasn't considered as heavily as the drinks' flavor, complexity, and authenticity.

The term "Suncloud" alone whisks me away to a fantasy world where it's always summer, candy grows on trees, and every Dunkin' drink is like a cooling wave of heat-beating refreshment. The Suncloud Lemonade is the base model of the Suncloud lineup, with lemon concentrate, oat milk, and cold foam. I raised an eyebrow at a lemony oat milk drink at first, but Dunkin' put me in my place.

Milk and lemon doesn't always work, but when it does, it works. Dunkin' nails a creamy lemonade with the caffeine-free Suncloud Lemonade, like a liquid dessert that's as indulgent as it is refreshing. The lemon concentrate the brand uses is rich and very sweet. It reminds me of a cross between lemon drop candy and lemon curd (two of the best lemon treats out there, in my humble opinion). The sweetness and tartness gets tampered down with the addition of oat milk, although this drink still made my mouth pucker.

Next in the Suncloud lineup is the Strawberry Suncloud Lemonade, featuring lemon concentrate, strawberry cold foam, oat milk, and a couple shots of strawberry flavor. Basically, this is a fruitier, more complex version of the classic Suncloud Lemonade, which appears at first glance like it could only be better than the plain old lemon version. Boy was I wrong.

The strawberry syrup in this Suncloud Lemonade totally lost me. It drowns out most of the lemon flavor, leaving behind nothing but too much tartness, an artificial berry taste, and some misplaced oat milk that only made the drink more muddled and too complex. Had this drink been made without the berry syrup and just the strawberry cold foam to give it a gentle berry essence, I think it could be even better than the regular Suncloud Lemonade.

For some reason, the summer of 2026 feels like a freeze pop summer. I didn't have very high expectations for a Dunkin' drink meant to mimic the taste of the most nostalgic summertime treat of all time, especially based on the funky concoction that makes up the Freeze Pop Suncloud Lemonade: lemon concentrate, something Dunkin dubs "freeze pop syrup," oat milk, cold foam, and dragonfruit bits on top.

I'll come right out and say it: This was my favorite of all 16 of the Dunkin' drinks that dropped today. By a mile. Mine didn't come with dragonfruit bits on top, but it didn't even matter. If anything, they might have hindered the drink. This Suncloud Lemonade was pure summer nostalgic bliss, like a melted Bomb Pop made even better by a backbone of creaminess, thanks to oat milk. This is going to be one of those fast food chain drinks that's a total summer hit, and hopefully will keep making an appearance on the Dunkin' menu for years to come.

The Vanilla Pink Cloud Latte was exactly what I wanted the Strawberry Suncloud Lemonade to be. The drinks are nearly identical, but the Pink Lemon Drop omits a couple shots of strawberry in favor of a bolder lemon profile. Instead, it just gets a topping of that adorable pink cold foam that's really starting to grow on me.

The cold foam gives this drink all of the strawberry taste that it needs. Since it's so potent, the strawberry syrup in the aforementioned Suncloud Lemonade is overkill, but the Pink Lemon Drop gets it just right. The tart lemonade is accentuated by smooth, sweet berry, and both flavors' tartness is made just mellow enough by creamy oat milk. The strawberry foam gives it just a dash of complexity to make it the best, objectively, of all the Suncloud drinks (although my personal favorite was the Freeze Pop).

Last (but kind of least?) in the Suncloud lineup, we have the Coconut Suncloud Limeade with coconut syrup, oat milk, and lime concentrate. The addition of lime here threw me for a loop, but we all know coconut and lime are a match made in tropical flavor heaven, and coconut and lemon feels vaugely... wrong, for whatever reason. I was really excited about this drink, but it ultimately left me feeling a little whelmed, if you will.

This drink had all the workings of a classic Dunkin' drink perfect for turning into a summer cocktail, technically speaking, but the coconut taste left a lot to be desired. It was too muted and drowned out by the oat milk and cold foam, although the lime concentrate was exactly as tart as I wanted it to be and didn't get lost in the milkiness. Still, lemon and oat milk made a much more dessert-worthy drink pairing, while lime and oat milk felt like Dunkin' was getting a little bit too creative. Maybe a third coconut shot would have made this drink all that it was meant to be.

Sparkling lemonade is basically just better lemonade. A little effervescence makes a drink so much more refreshing, and lemonade is already the king of refreshment, so it's a no-brainer. Dunkin's take on the summertime classic hits all the right notes, albeit in a bit of a bland way. There isn't a whole lot going on with this drink — just sparkling water and lemon concentrate. But honestly? That's okay by me.

Dunkin's Sparkling Lemonade was the drink I could most easily picture myself sipping on the beach. It was perfectly sweet, a little bit more sour than a standard lemonade, and the bubbles weren't too overwhelming; they were just the right amount of fizzy to make this lemonade a little playful. This drink has a lot of Dunkin' secret menu potential — I could see a shot of this or an addition of that upgrading it enough so that it can hold its own against the chain's funkier concoctions.

I love the idea of a strawberry-lime soda, but only if the ingredients are fresh. Call me bougie, but artificial strawberry and too-tart lime is a literal recipe for disaster. Enter Dunkin', to show us all that just because something is an artificial-flavor nightmare, doesn't mean it can't be part of the latest summer rollout. I admire your confidence, Dunkin'.

The Strawberry Sparkling Limeade is all sorts of wrong. There's too much strawberry, which tastes like the cheap, Red 40-riddled candy that we all used to eat too much of as children. The lime amplified the fake-fruit flavor, and the effervescence carried it across my palate like a rapidly spreading fruity wildfire. I'll be choosing the plain old Sparkling Lemonade next time, thank you very much.

Here, we have a much more appropriate use of strawberry, if you ask me. Chocolate-covered strawberry is a pretty uncommon coffee syrup flavor, but it really, really works. In the case of this Dunkin' drink, there's mocha swirl (which is basically chocolate syrup), strawberry shots, cream, and a topping of strawberry cold foam that makes this drink — dare I say it — downright adorable.

The strawberry flavor is much more subdued here than in the other drinks featuring the summer-centric berry. The chocolate puts in a lot of work tampering the artificial taste and giving the drink a heftier body, but it's still light and refreshing enough for a hot day. The coffee, chocolate, and strawberry tastes all come through in equal measure for a well-balanced drink.

Dunkin' dropped its own line of sugar-free energy drinks earlier this year to a solid amount of fanfare. The Watermelon Lime Dunkin' Zero is the only Dunkin' Zero energy drink that's part of this July rollout, and that might be for the best. As a sugar-free energy-drink enjoyer myself, I definitely see the appeal, but watermelon and lime can't hold a candle to the other Zero flavors.

I couldn't detect watermelon nor lime in this drink. Instead, it was more like an ambiguous non-flavor that was a little bit melon, a little bit citrus, and a whole lot of dull. The most prominent flavor is that stevia and allulose-y, zero-calorie sweetener taste (you know the one). I'd be lying if I said this drink isn't refreshing, but there are certainly much better, more summer-ready bevies on this list.

This is the only Refresher that's part of this July 8 launch, which had me a little disappointed. Dunkin's Refreshers have quickly become one of the chain's most iconic drinks, and they're destined for summer. This one, however, deserves to steal the show. I wasn't sure at first why this drink earned the "candy" moniker, instead of being called the Dragonfruit Lemonade Refresher, but the first sip explained everything.

This is the one drink in this launch that really impressed me, despite being far from my personal favorite. It's not completely clear from the marketing that Dunkin' was going for a cotton candy flavor here, specifically, but it proved to be heavily inspired by the iconic carnival treat, without being too sweet. I don't love the flavor of cotton candy, but if I did, I know I'd be pining for this Dunkin' drink all summer.

The Vanilla Pink Cloud Latte is basically the Pink Lemon Drop Suncloud Lemonade, but with coffee instead of lemon. Does that make sense? It features vanilla syrup, espresso, milk, and a delicate dollop of strawberry cold foam.

The tiny essence of strawberry via the cold foam really makes this drink. Without it, it would be incredibly bland (very vanilla, if you will). The coffee taste could be a little more potent and the sweetness turned down just a tad, but the fact that it's balanced, fun, with just the right pop of flavor to make it summer-worthy, makes it one of the best on this list.

I'm happy to see Dunkin' embracing the legendary fluffernutter, and as a lover of regional sandwiches, I hoped the coffee and peanut butter-marshmellow combo would do the chain's home state sandwich justice. This drink contains peanut butter syrup, milk, espresso, and a little bit of marshmallow-flavored cold foam.

As much as I would have loved to give the Fluffernutter Cloud Latte "wicked pissa" status, it fell mostly flat. The marshmallow cold foam might as well have been nonexistent, and the peanut butter was too overbearing. Had the drink had a mix of marshmallow and peanut butter syrup, plus the cold foam to balance out the rich nuttiness a bit, it could have worked. This is one of those drinks that makes you realize the disappointing reality behind Dunkin's cold foam is that it's just not as good as Starbucks'.

I'm sorry Massachusetts, but when it comes to peanut butter-based sandwiches, the PB and J wins. Every time. I don't think Dunkin' needed to balance the scales with a PB and J latte along with the fluffernutter version, but I'm glad it did, because it's better. This one contains all the same ingredients as the Fluffernutter Cloud Latte, but it forgoes the marshmallow cold foam for strawberry foam.

Dunkin's interpreting "jelly" pretty loosely here, but the strawberry-peanut butter combo still makes for a tasty summer drink. The strawberry in the cold foam comes through way more than the marshmallow did in the Fluffernutter Latte, and its tangy flavor makes the peanut butter much less overbearing. I would have liked a more potent coffee taste, but c'est la vie. Next time I'd order this drink with oat milk instead of dairy milk; the toasty oat flavor would pair really well with the peanut butter syrup and the berry.

Dunkin' whipped up a concoction to whisk us back to our younger days with the fluffernutter flavor in an ice cream-like drink that I'm sure was meant to tickle our nostalgia. However, the iconic flavor combo just doesn't hit as hard served in the form of a dessert-like drink, proving that some nostalgia is meant to stay in the past.

The only thing I tasted with each sip was the peanut butter, thanks to a double dose of peanut butter swirls. But, there's something off about the flavor that I didn't detect in the lattes. It's too harsh, and it tastes slightly burned and chalky. It sat on my tongue and refused to leave, and the bland marshmallow cold foam on top did virtually nothing to help combat the intensity.

It seems like you can't go anywhere today without the possibility of some new protein-fueled product waving at you from a menu. Protein is having a (really, really big) moment right now, so of course Dunkin' hopped aboard the trend to create a Peanut Butter Protein Latte. Now you can get a punch of caffeine alongside a roundhouse kick of protein. But, it's a two-fer that just didn't punch the right way.

The latte packs two swirls of peanut butter, but instead of the creamy flavor I expected in each sip, there was this slightly bitter and burned aftertaste, just like I noticed in the Coffee Chiller. That coupled with the mouth-coating whey protein texture and lack of any real coffee taste made this one of the most unpleasant drinks in this launch.

The Peanut Butter Shakin' Espresso was easily the best of the peanut butter-flavored drinks, no contest. It contains two shots of espresso, oat milk, and peanut butter swirl. I was a little iffy about the fact that there wasn't anything to balance out the peanut butter flavor, since it's one that's known to be a little bit too boisterous in a coffee drink. But, as long as you're a major PB fanatic, this drink is sure to tickle your fancy.

The issue I had with many of the peanut butter-flavored drinks on this list was a lingering burnt aftertaste. However, there wasn't a trace of that here, probably thanks to the strong punch of espresso that masks it. The oat milk was an excellent pairing with this flavor; dairy milk would have given it a too-dense texture and more of that palate-coating mouthfeel that it already had plenty of.

Look, this is a lot, even for Dunkin'. Compared to the chain's previous summer drink launches, this rollout is far less compact. I'm not sure it needed to be that way, even though I'm really excited about the fact that all the drinks are the same color scheme. Still, a good half of these drinks could be nixed and still make for a fast food seasonal release for the ages.

The Suncloud Lemonades were my favorite part of this launch. They check every box: They're unique, refreshing, and they're caffeine-free and can be made vegan, so these citrusy sips are for everyone. I'm a major fan of lemon anything, especially when the temperature starts climbing, and I'm pretty particular about what goes into a good lemony sweet treat. Even though a milky lemon drink has the potential to be a disaster, as a whole, Dunkin' nailed it.

As much as I liked the Sparkling Lemonade, it was a bit too boring to fit in with the rest of this launch, and the strawberry-lime version should have never been birthed into existence. Meanwhile, I couldn't get into the Fluffernutter beverages. However, I was pleased with Kylie's pink drinks overall, especially the Candy Pink Refresher, aka liquid cotton candy. I would have been more than happy with a launch consisting of just the Suncloud Lemonades and the Kylie Jenner pink drinks, but at the same time, there's nothing inherently wrong with too much variety. Plus, even the drinks that left a lot to be desired are still exceptionally appropriate for summer.