Every Dunkin' Iced Coffee, Ranked Worst To Best
Dunkin' iced coffee is a big deal, beloved by Hollywood celebrities and TikTok stars alike. If we are to believe the commercials, America runs on the stuff. It's the preferred morning fuel for countless people, but is it any good? We decided to try every flavor of Dunkin' iced coffee to find out for ourselves.
First, we should take a few moments to discuss our methodology. Every drink at Dunkin' is heavily customizable, with different kinds of milk, sweeteners, and syrups that can be combined in thousands of ways. You can add multiple flavorings to pretty much anything on the menu. We didn't have time to sample thousands of coffees, so we strategically narrowed things down. We tasted every specialty drink in its unmodified state. We tasted most of the flavor syrups as add-ons in regular iced coffees so we could try them in the plainest context possible (we didn't mix multiple syrups together). Without further ado, let's move on to the rankings. (New England residents, please don't get too mad at us.)
22. Iced Americano
The iced Americano lets you taste Dunkin's espresso in its purest form, as it's just espresso and water over ice. The chain's espresso does not do well in the spotlight. Unlike other drinks that mask the espresso's shortcomings with milk, sweeteners, and flavorings, the iced Americano showcases the ugly truth of Dunkin's espresso. It's incredibly bitter — so much so that it tastes burnt. We also picked up flavor notes of charred sticks and scorched plastic.
This drink tasted like what would happen if you tried to make espresso with a supermarket brand of budget coffee like Folgers. The flavor was over-extracted, and in such a concentrated form the off-taste of the cheap coffee was hard to bear. In addition to the bitterness, it had a sour, almost tannic quality that made our mouths feel dry. We literally grimaced every time we took a sip of this. If you feel the need to get an espresso-based drink from Dunkin', anything else on the menu would be better than this.
21. Shamrock Macchiato
The Shamrock Macchiato was added to Dunkin's menu as a St. Patrick's Day limited-time item, but we were still able to get our hands on one about a month after the holiday. Perhaps they had extra shamrock syrup leftover because nobody wanted to buy it.
The first thing you need to know about this drink is that it's green. Or rather, the milky layer at the bottom of the cup is green, and the top is coffee-colored. We were kind of weirded out by the idea of green coffee. It's supposed to taste like Irish creme, and Dunkin' even says that you should pick up hints of Irish whiskey flavor. It does not succeed at replicating the Irish creme experience and instead tastes like chemicals.
You get an overwhelming artificial flavor when you sip the Shamrock Macchiato. It's hard to identify what flavors it's trying to mimic. The closest comparison is artificial vanilla extract with a hint of almond extract. The drink is also preposterously sweet, even by Dunkin's standards. We warn you in the strongest possible terms to not buy this.
20. Blueberry iced coffee
In addition to all the normal flavoring syrups you would expect at a café — like caramel, mocha, and vanilla — Dunkin' also lets you add a couple of different fruity shots to your coffee if you want to get funky. The blueberry iced coffee is a great example of the concept of just because you can do something doesn't always mean that you should.
Dunkin's blueberry syrup tastes exactly like the fake blueberries you'd find in a supermarket-brand blueberry muffin or a cheap blueberry donut. It has a pretty strong flavor and takes over the drink. The syrup actually doesn't taste all that bad; it just doesn't taste anything like actual blueberries. We think that fake blueberry flavor can be delicious in the right context. Coffee is not the right context. The incongruity of the coffee and blueberry flavors felt like it broke our brains. We tasted coffee, and then we tasted blueberry, and we simply could not put them together to make one unified flavor experience.
19. Raspberry iced coffee
The other fruit-flavored syrup from Dunkin' is a substantial improvement over the blueberry. Don't get us wrong: It's not good by any means, but it passes the threshold of drinkability. The raspberry flavoring tasted slightly less fake than the blueberry syrup and was milder overall. Its lack of assertiveness meant that it blended into the background of the drink a little bit better than the blueberry did. The raspberry flavoring still didn't seem like it belonged in coffee, but it was easier to ignore.
This drink felt like it made more sense the longer we drank it. We're not sure if that was just Stockholm syndrome or if dilution from the ice melting made it more palatable. As time went on, we noticed that it reminded us more of iced tea than coffee. Raspberry is an acceptable iced tea flavor, so if we pretended we were drinking tea, the raspberry iced coffee seemed less weird. We still wouldn't recommend it.
18. Iced macchiato
First, the good: The unflavored macchiato from Dunkin' has the best balance of milk to coffee out of any of the chain's milk-based espresso drinks. All the others are so milk-heavy that any coffee flavor gets totally overwhelmed. We like our coffee to taste at least a little bit like coffee, so we appreciated that aspect of the macchiato.
Unfortunately, as noted above, Dunkin' espresso tastes bad. Thankfully the addition of milk did help hide its biggest sins. It still tasted bitter, but not disgustingly so. The burnt flavor receded into the background, and it actually reminded us a bit of New Orleans-style chicory coffee. We didn't love the plain macchiato, but it had potential. With a shot or two of flavoring syrup (not shamrock), it would be one of the better options from the espresso side of Dunkin's menu. It felt less like a dessert than many of the other drinks we tried, and more like something an adult would drink to wake up.
17. Hazelnut iced coffee
Have you ever bought the hazelnut-flavored coffee grounds at the grocery store? Have you ever purchased hazelnut-flavored coffee from a gas station? If so, then you have a pretty good idea of what Dunkin's hazelnut iced coffee tastes like.
The hazelnut flavor syrup has a very strong fake nut flavor. It tastes like "hazelnut," but nothing like real hazelnuts. It's not bad; we don't hate that flavor. However, it is disappointing. Real hazelnuts, with their buttery richness and toasty, slightly bitter taste, are amazing, and that flavor paired with coffee would be a home run. Each sip of the Dunkin' hazelnut iced coffee reminded us of how good it could have been if the flavoring was more accurate to real hazelnuts. Especially when many of the other flavor syrups from the chain do a much better job at mimicking the foods they're named after, we would recommend passing on the hazelnut. However, if you're a ride-or-die hazelnut coffee person, this will do the job.
16. Iced latte
Dunkin's iced latte mostly tastes like milk. There's maybe a faint hint of bitterness from coffee, but it's hardly noticeable. It doesn't taste bad, but it feels like a waste of money. After all, what is an iced latte? It's milk and espresso poured over ice. We've already established that Dunkin's espresso isn't worth seeking out, so let's turn to the subject of the milk. In a hot latte, you get steamed milk with some foam on top. The foam adds a fun textural component to the experience, increasing the pleasure you get from consuming the drink. In an iced latte, none of that applies. There's no foam, so you're paying for espresso with regular milk.
The iced latte at Dunkin' is more expensive than a regular iced coffee, but it's not better in any way. If you want a cold, milky drink from Dunkin', just get an iced coffee with milk in it. It'll be cheaper, and it will actually taste more like coffee.
15. Butter Pecan Swirl iced coffee
The Butter Pecan Swirl iced coffee is the best way to try Dunkin's butter pecan-flavored syrup. Unlike the Turtle Signature Latte, which was overwhelmed by the Mocha Swirl, this iced coffee was actually quite balanced in terms of sweetness. The first note on the tongue was a nice caramelized flavor that was halfway between burnt sugar and toasted nuts. There was enough sweetness, but we also detected a lot of bitterness reminiscent of real pecans. The nutty overtones worked well with the already-nutty flavor of roasted coffee. We got it with cream, but we think this particular syrup would play well in black coffee as well.
The butter component was a little less successful. It tasted pretty fake, reminiscent of movie theater popcorn butter. However, the pecan was much stronger than the butter, so the artificial taste didn't ruin the drink as a whole. If you're looking for a nutty iced coffee at Dunkin', this is way better than the hazelnut coffee.
14. Iced cappuccino
We're not sure what separates the iced cappuccino at Dunkin' from the iced latte. Traditionally, a cappuccino is simply a latte with extra foam on top, but the iced cappuccino tasted more or less the same as the latte did. Dunkin's menu notes that the iced cappuccino is supposed to be frothy on top, but we noticed no froth in ours. Everything we said about the iced latte applies to the iced cappuccino.
We got the unsweetened vanilla syrup with our cappuccino. Compared with the sweetened French vanilla syrup, which you'll read about later, the regular vanilla was quite subtle, even refined. We enjoyed that it didn't taste like candy, but it was so subdued that it was hard to detect at first. However, as the drink warmed up and some of the ice melted, we were able to pick up the vanilla flavor a bit more. If you get this particular flavor shot, you might want to ask for an extra pump or two.
13. Frozen coffee
This beverage is a thin coffee slushie that comes pre-mixed with cream, sugar, and flavorings. The texture of this drink was great. You could tell it was a frozen beverage, but it didn't have any big ice crystals in it and it felt very smooth on the tongue.
Flavor-wise, it was absurdly sweet, but we were expecting that. You don't order something that's basically a coffee milkshake from Dunkin' unless you want a sugar explosion. What surprised us was the assertiveness of the other flavors. It had a really strong molasses taste that caught us off-guard. We enjoyed the complexity the molasses brought to the beverage, but we were surprised to encounter such an assertive taste. We also thought we detected some cinnamon, but that might just be because we associate cinnamon and molasses so strongly in our minds. The coffee was hanging out in the background. You could tell it was there, but it was definitely a supporting player. We only took a few sips of this before we decided we were done with it.
12. Caramel swirl iced coffee
The sweetened caramel swirl syrup at Dunkin' is one of the sweetest flavor shots you can get from the chain. It thoroughly masked the flavor of the iced coffee. You could still taste that there was coffee, but the sweetness of the caramel made the coffee taste more like chocolate. The particular example we were served was not very well mixed and most of the syrup was sitting at the bottom, but a quick stir with a straw fixed that.
In terms of the flavor of the caramel itself, it was pretty tasty. It tasted like a dark caramel, with notes of burnt sugar, vanilla, and butter. We were surprised at the complexity of the syrup. However, the level of sugar made us feel like we were drinking a dessert instead of coffee. It felt unbalanced even though it tasted good. If you want to get the caramel syrup, ordering half the usual number of pumps would be a good idea.
11. Cocoa Mocha Iced Signature Latte
With a signature latte, you get some whipped cream and toppings added to a standard iced latte. The extras make the signature latte feel fun and more special than the disappointing standard iced latte. Instead of feeling like dessert masquerading as coffee, the Cocoa Mocha Signature Latte just felt like dessert that wasn't trying to be anything else. We would never order it if we wanted coffee, but it was pretty yummy if we thought of it as an espresso milkshake.
This latte was very chocolatey. It has a chocolate syrup drizzle on top of the whipped cream as well as chocolate flavor in the coffee itself. It tasted like when you make chocolate milk with an extra scoopful of powder. There was a touch of bitterness tempering the onslaught of sweetness, but we're pretty sure that was from the cocoa in the chocolate instead of from the coffee. This tasted good, but it was so thick, sweet, and milky that drinking an entire one was a challenge.
10. French vanilla swirl iced coffee
French vanilla is the second-sweetest syrup at Dunkin'. We were worried that this would taste like French vanilla nondairy creamer, but we were pleasantly surprised at how real the vanilla tasted. It had very little of the strange fake taste we've come to associate with bargain-priced vanilla coffee products. Instead, it tasted like high-quality pure vanilla paste or vanilla extract.
The combination of the vanilla and creamy flavors along with the slightly smoky notes of Dunkin's iced coffee was reminiscent of toasted marshmallows. Dunkin's coffee has a slightly chocolatey character to it, and the vanilla and cream enhanced that. This drink reminded us of s'mores. As with the other sweetened syrups at Dunkin', the French vanilla was quite strong, but it covered up the coffee less than the mocha or caramel syrups did. It was sweeter than we would've liked, but we could imagine many people enjoying this level of sweetness in an iced coffee drink.
9. Turtle Signature Latte
While we enjoy Dunkin's butter pecan syrup in certain contexts, the Turtle Signature Latte (a combination of Butter Pecan Swirl, Mocha Swirl, espresso, and whole milk) has a little too much going on. The complexity of the butter pecan flavor gets lost due to the presence of its mocha counterpart. We get that pecans and chocolate mixed together is what makes a turtle, but the cocoa notes really dominated the beverage. This coffee tasted mostly like an iced mocha (veering on chocolate milk territory) with just a touch of caramel and vanilla mixed in (we didn't get any pecan flavor at all).
While we didn't love the actual coffee portion of this drink, we should shout out the one component of it we appreciated: the cocoa caramel crumbles on top. These little pieces of crunchy hard candy added welcome texture and flavor to the drink. The caramel-flavored ones tasted like buttery toffee, while the cocoa crumbles were like chocolatey rock candy. We kept lifting out just the candy with our straw and eating it by itself.
8. Original blend iced coffee
Here it is, the blank canvas upon which Dunkin' paints so many different pictures with sweeteners, syrups, and cream. We were surprised at how drinkable Dunkin' iced coffee was in its black and unsweetened state.
It didn't taste like coffee you'd get from a fancy local coffee shop by any means, but it was decent. It was a little bit acidic and sour, which indicated to us that it wasn't made with a super dark roast of coffee. It even had notes of fruitiness and a tea-like aftertaste. However, we noticed a bit of a stale flavor as well. More than anything else, Dunkin' iced coffee is strong. It tastes like it's brewed with a high quantity of grounds, and it has the caffeine levels to match.
According to the chain, a small iced coffee contains nearly 200 milligrams of caffeine, which is more than what you'd find in a Monster Energy Drink. A large iced coffee puts you right at the FDA's recommended limit for daily caffeine consumption. We can see why so many people choose Dunkin' for their morning jolt of energy.
7. Cold brew
The plain black cold brew, like the regular iced coffee, stands on its own surprisingly well. It tastes very different from the normal iced coffee. As you would expect from cold brew, it's not bitter at all, and the acidity and fruitiness are reduced when compared with the traditional iced coffee. The overall mildness of this drink reminded us strongly of unsweetened black tea.
Overall, the cold brew was tasty and easy to drink, but it was still obvious that it wasn't made with the best beans. We picked up an oxidized flavor that was reminiscent of cardboard or wood. Despite that hint of weirdness, we'd pick the cold brew for people who like their iced coffee black. It was slightly tastier than the standard iced coffee and leagues ahead of the Americano. We generally expect cold brew to have more caffeine than other types of coffee, but surprisingly, the cold brew at Dunkin' is slightly less caffeinated than the standard coffee.
6. Mocha swirl iced coffee
This is our top pick out of the chocolate-flavored iced coffees from Dunkin'. With an iced coffee instead of a latte, you get a lot more coffee flavor to balance out the sweetness of the syrup. The mocha syrup is also a little less sugary than the other sweetened syrups. It's still sweet, but it reads more as a coffee beverage than a milkshake.
The mocha syrup at Dunkin' is a dead ringer for Hershey's syrup, which isn't a bad thing at all. It has the same bittersweet, cocoa-forward flavor profile as everyone's favorite chocolate milk ingredient and ice cream topping. Speaking of chocolate milk, that's what this tasted like, with just enough coffee flavor to keep it grounded. If you got this without any dairy or creamer in it, it would probably have a much less sweet flavor profile. Sometimes you just want something chocolatey and fun to start the day, and the mocha swirl iced coffee does a good job of delivering that experience.
5. Cold brew with sweet cold foam
Sweet cold foam is a dairy product that has been frothed to make a foamy topping for Dunkin' cold brew. It's pretty fun and does a much better job at replicating the textural experience of a real latte than the actual Dunkin' iced latte does.
When you first receive this drink, all of the cold foam sits on top, but, as you sip it, the foam slowly mixes with the coffee, sweetening and lightening the brew. Since the overall amount of cold foam is relatively small, the drink never becomes overbearingly sweet, even when all the foam dissolves into the cold brew.
The sweet cold foam mostly just tastes like milk, but somehow intensified. It reminded us of sweetened condensed milk. We noticed a hint of vanilla as well. It played well with the cold brew, but it wasn't a strong enough flavor to completely mask the cold brew's slight cardboard taste.
4. Toasted almond iced coffee
After the hazelnut iced coffee left us with a mouthful of artificial flavors, we didn't have high hopes for the toasted almond. We thought it would probably taste like bottled almond extract. We were surprised to find that it exceeded our low expectations.
This flavor is one of the unsweetened ones, so it's up to your discretion how much sweetener you want to add. We found that it was delicious when combined with the natural sweetness of whole milk and nothing else. It tasted shockingly like real almonds, with a pleasant roasty, nutty flavor.
One criticism we have of the toasted almond is it's subtleness. We had to really focus to notice its flavor over the coffee and milk. You might want to ask for extra shots if you like an assertively nutty taste in your coffee. However, since so many of the flavored coffees at Dunkin' are too aggressive, the low-key flavor of toasted almond felt pretty refreshing.
3. Coconut iced coffee
Coconut-flavored things can be really good or really bad depending on how real they taste. When coconut flavoring goes wrong, it can make foods and drinks taste like sunscreen or lotion. Coconut flavoring also has a tendency to go overboard on sweetness. Mercifully, the coconut syrup at Dunkin' is unsweetened, so it avoids that second trap. It also tastes like real coconut, or at least close enough, that it doesn't make you think about skincare products.
We haven't tried a lot of coconut coffee, but drinking this made us want to see it as an option at more cafés. The coconut and coffee worked great together. We all know that chocolate and coconut are a perfect pair, and the coconut iced coffee hit a lot of the same flavor notes in a much less sugary way. The coconut syrup nailed the perfect balance between asserting itself and letting the flavor of the coffee shine through. We would get this again.
2. Cold brew with caramel cold foam
This is the best cold brew drink on Dunkin's menu. We already liked the regular cold foam, and the caramel flavoring in this added a flavor depth without bringing a bunch of unnecessary sweetness to the drink.
Compared to other caramel drinks from the chain, this felt refined and restrained. There was still plenty of caramel flavor, but you could taste the coffee clearly as well. The caramel did a better job than the sweet cold foam at hiding the off-flavor of Dunkin' cold brew, which was nice. The caramel itself had a pleasant vanilla and brown sugar flavor. We're not sure if Dunkin' uses the same caramel in the cold foam as it does in all its other drinks, but it tasted very different in this context. We didn't feel like we just ate a whole candy bar after finishing this, and we could imagine drinking it with breakfast.
1. Caramel Craze Iced Signature Latte
We know we've spent a lot of time complaining about how heinously sweet Dunkin' coffee drinks can be, so it might come as a surprise that such a sugar-forward drink is sitting in the top spot. The thing is, for us, Dunkin' isn't a place to go for normal, unflavored coffee. It's a place to get a caffeinated dessert when you feel like treating yourself. Many of the sweeter drinks on Dunkin's menu didn't really work for us, but the Caramel Craze iced signature latte was a perfectly-executed sugary coffee beverage.
This latte was quite sweet, but it also had complexity and depth of flavor. The caramel tasted like brown butter, vanilla, and toasted sugar. The espresso added some chocolaty notes, and the whipped cream on top added a bit of childlike whimsy. The thing that sealed the deal for us was the sprinkle of cinnamon on top. That hint of spice made the whole drink taste yummier, and we got a little bit of cinnamon in every sip. If you're prepared for a sugar rush followed by an intense crash, this drink is the tastiest iced coffee on Dunkin's menu.