8 Hacks For Ordering Dunkin' Everyone Should Know

Since dropping 'Donuts' from its moniker in 2019 to emphasize its on-the-go beverage offerings over its bakery namesake, Dunkin' has expanded its menu considerably. Additionally, celebrity collaborations with famous New Englanders like Ben Affleck and Tom Brady have also helped introduce the aging franchise to the contemporary coffee market – while staying true to its Massachusetts roots. 

The donut chain now offers a competitive beverage selection, as well as tasty breakfast and snack options. For the purists out there, don't fret, you can still grab a box of traditional Dunkin' donuts or munchkins with your basic coffee. But with the current menu, you can also do so much more.

With more than 14,000 ways to customize your order using the app, the diverse array of Dunkin' coffee add-ins and its expanded sandwich selection make the franchise ripe for creative and opportunistic ordering — you just gotta know how to work the angles. To help with that task, Chowhound scoured social media and drew from personal experience to assemble eight hacks for ordering Dunkin' that everyone should know.

One of the biggest marketing points at Dunkin' is that its donuts are made fresh daily. Depending on location, that either means donuts were baked first thing that morning in the franchise kitchen, or made the night before at a regional factory and delivered before open. If corporate rules are adhered to, unsold donuts cannot remain in a store's case overnight — they must be donated, composted, or thrown away — and the policy often leaves Dunkin' shops with an end-of-day bounty.

Dunkin' employees say they are often left with extra donuts after a hard day's work slinging coffee and crullers, but store policies vary on how to address the excess. "90% of us will give out some donuts before closing because we have to throw them all away anyway!" one Dunkin' employee says on TikTok. Speaking from experience, a Reddit user confirms, saying: "If you're there late in the day, and you get one or two, there's a good chance they might just give it to you for free."

While customers and employees alike reference the late-day Dunkin' score on social media, many recommend not asking for freebies directly. "If someone comes in and asks me if I'll give them free donuts, I won't," a Facebook commenter and Dunkin' worker says. While ultimately, store policy and employee benevolence will dictate whether a franchise dishes out free or discounted donuts at the end of the day, it seems like this is a hack with some heft.

In 2013, Dunkin' took its wake-up game to a whole new level by putting a glazed donut breakfast sandwich on its menu. Featuring a fried egg and cherrywood smoked bacon between a horizontally-sliced, Dunkin' glazer, this item tickled the taste buds of customers who couldn't decide between sugar and salt. It was: "the perfect combo of sweet and savory," according to one Facebook user. "The best of both worlds."

Apparently not popular enough to warrant a permanent place on the official Dunkin' menu, the glazed donut breakfast sandwich has since been discontinued, but you can still make the magic happen, according to Dunkin' fans and employees. On Facebook, one customer suggests you order a donut and breakfast sandwich separately and just "do it yourself," but a commenter on the same thread who works at Dunkin' claims the option already exists, saying: "We technically have a button for it under our bread section ... not a single soul has ever asked tho lol."

Another Facebook user suggests replacing your bread with a different sweet treat, claiming: "Bacon egg and cheese on a maple frosted is soooooo good." Although store policies on bread swaps differ, along with Dunkin' donuts' taste and quality, the consensus seems to be that this is a combo worth trying, and an ordering hack for Dunkin' everyone should know.

If you're looking to keep your sugar or fat consumption in check, you may be tempted to cruise past Dunkin' on your morning commute. Typically not associated with healthy eating and drinking, the Dunkin' coffee menu does, in fact, have an abundance of super-sweet, arguably bad-for-you options. But it also has some good choices, if you know how to order.

Aside from the obvious switch-out of Splenda, Equal, or stevia for traditional sugar, it's helpful to know that the Dunkin' flavor shots are unsweetened and add just 5-10 calories to your beverage, versus its flavor swirls, which include dairy and add between 150 and 160 calories. Responding to a Facebook post soliciting recommendations for lowering the sugar in her Dunkin' order, one commenter says: "Try subbing one or two of the swirls with flavor shots and see if it's still sweet enough!" Another suggests using the app for health-conscious ordering, saying: "I can see the starting calories and if I add shots I know I'm getting the sf ones."

With 30 calories in 2 tablespoons and just 1 gram of fat, the Dunkin' cold foam is also a good swap out for whole milk, half-and-half, or heavy cream. "[It] has less sugar than the French vanilla swirl but is still sweet and tastes kinda vanilla," a health-conscious Dunkin' customer claims on Facebook. "I found that it takes the place of both cream AND sugar nicely."

If you're looking to try new things and experiment with flavors on your next Dunkin' run, why not ask the experts? While policies vary from franchise to franchise, many Dunkin' stores allow employees free or reduced access to its basic menu, which leaves them free to play around with additions that will give their coffee a flavor boost. Many of them have also learned from experience what customers want, even if they often don't know themselves.

"If you want a stronger coffee, but don't want espresso, ask for cold brew, it is stronger than the original blend," one Dunkin' employee says on Facebook. "If you want a stronger hot coffee, but also do not want espresso shots, ask for midnight." There also seems to be a lot of employee love for candy-themed coffee drinks, with one Reddit commenter saying: "If you like snickers try 2 caramel, 1 mocha, 3 hazelnut, 3 cream."

Other hacks for ordering Dunkin' everyone should know are slightly less conventional, according to social media. "When I first started, I would steam apple juice after cleaning the wand & put a pump of chai," a Dunkin' employee recalls on Reddit: "All I can say is fall in a cup ... IK IT SOUNDS INSANE LOL." Another commenter on the same thread recommends "a vanilla coolatta with half a chocolate chip cookie blended in" — a modification subject to employee willingness and store policy, of course.

The long-standing Dunkin' $6 breakfast meal deal — which currently includes a medium hot or iced coffee, a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich, and an order of hash browns – can really hit the spot if you're in a hurry and on a budget. Speaking from experience, one Reddit user claims the deal is "100% worth it, i'm not even a bacon fan but for $6 it fills you up pretty good."

However, many customers long for the days when this combo featured a sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich instead of the bacon one, or at least allowed customers to swap out the meat. "You would think they would at least give the option of sausage egg and cheese," a Reddit user laments.

While some customers report success at getting their local franchise to make the substitution without an up-charge, one Dunkin' manager suggests on Facebook that customers ask for the standard meal deal but ask for a sausage patty as an add-on, saying: "We just ring an egg n cheese add sausage and it still rings as a meal deal! We just tell them about the up-charge for the sausage!"

With several commenters and employees reporting a small up-charge of around $1 for adding sausage at Dunkin', you're still getting a lower price than you would if you purchased the three items separately, which makes this a pretty solid hack.

The next time you order Dunkin' — whether it be on the app, at the counter, or in the drive-through — why not take a beat to consider whether your order might be improved by an order of the Dunkin' salty sidekick, the Snackin' Bacon. This high-protein offering, found under the Snacks & Wraps section of the Dunkin' menu, usually comes in a portable sleeve like your favorite fast food French fries, so it can be easily enjoyed on the go.

The side of bacon can lend depth to donuts, sandwiches, and bagels. It can also offset the sugar shock from some of its coffee drinks and open the door to a whole new world of customizations. A Facebook user recommends ordering the following: "1 maple glazed donut, 2 servings of snackin' pepper baconed strips. Crumble 2 strips and sprinkle on top and fill the hole with leftovers. Then a light drizzling of caramel syrup ... Your life will probably be shorter... but you will die with a smile on your face."

Customers say they've encountered an ever changing flavor profile for this item over the years, with personal preferences running the gamut from black pepper to maple sugar to hot honey. While many lament the passing of their faves, several have discovered the seasoning still exists at some Dunkin' locations, with one Redditor saying: "You just have to ask in person. Every location is different but definitely worth asking."

Starbucks junkies looking to get a similar fix at Dunkin' can do so with a little creativity, according to social media users, but you have to know how to order if you're going to recreate the magic. On TikTok, one Dunkin' convert says this: "My hack is, whatever coffee you're thinking of getting at Dunkin', add an espresso shot ... it tastes just like Starbucks."

On Reddit, when one user asks the Dunkin' community to convert her Starbucks order of an iced white mocha with extra caramel drizzle and vanilla sweet cream cold foam to a Dunkin' drink, a commenter suggests: "Toasted white chocolate syrup with cold foam. They add the caramel drizzle when requested."

When asked for advice on replicating a Starbucks iced hazelnut oatmilk shaken espresso at Dunkin', an employee on Facebook says: "We can make the same, ask us for a Hazelnut ice coffee with oat[milk] and we'll shake it for you." To get the blue, sugary experience delivered by a Starbucks cotton candy refresher, another Facebook user says, "Try a blue raspberry coolatta with 1 pump vanilla bean, 3 raspberry shots, and 2 vanilla shots ... It's the closest in my opinion."

Since Dunkin' and Baskin-Robbins are sister brands and share a parent company (Dunkin' Brands), they often exist side-by-side in a storefront, which means: "You can get coffee and ice cream at the same time," according to one enthusiastic Facebook commenter. "Score!" They are also frequently owned by the same franchisee, which means those of you who are lucky enough to have this duo in your neighborhood can pursue collaborations between the two that might elevate both your coffee drinking and ice cream eating experiences.

If management is amenable and employees are willing, you can ask them to blend a donut into your milkshake or top your sundae with a munchkin. You can also ask if they'll pour a shot of espresso over your scoop to create a variation on the affogato. "It's ice cream/gelato with espresso poured on top," one Reddit user says. "It's delicious." Baskin-Robbins used to have one on its menu and it seems to have been very popular, which makes this a hack for ordering Dunkin' everyone should know.