The Definitive Ranking Of Hot Dunkin' Drinks

Dunkin' is more than just donuts; America's oldest still-open donut chain also has a pretty hefty menu of drinks to help wash those bad boys down. We're talking more than just coffee and espresso drinks, too. The Dunkin' hot drink menu has grown over the years to include hot teas, tea lattes, and even protein drinks, and I was on a mission to see how all 19 of them stacked up against each other. (It should be noted that the actual number of hot drinks at Dunkin' is 21. However, two of the hot herbal teas, Hibiscus Kiss and Chamomile Fields, were not available in my area.)

I will say that the placement of these drinks shocked me. This was a wild ride where everything I thought I knew and liked about Dunkin' hot drinks wound up being wrong. I kept it consistent and ordered small sizes of each drink, all made with oat milk. Come with me on this journey — this is the definitive ranking of hot Dunkin' drinks.

Dunkin's Protein Matcha Latte is mostly the same as its regular matcha latte, but it's made with protein milk. The main difference, however, is that the Protein Matcha Latte is downright terrible, from even before the first sip. Just one sniff of this latte is like smelling steamed broccoli right out of the microwave, with a little bit of grass melted in.

The taste is somehow worse. It tastes like sweet broccoli milk. It's like if you dumped some hot milk into a watery bag of broccoli followed by sprinkling some Splenda in there. There's also a very haunting and sour aftertaste that sticks around long after you take a drink. Drinking this beverage is a disconcerting experience that makes you long for the taste of grass. I'm not sure if it's the protein milk, the matcha, or the sweetener — it's most likely a combination of all three. This beverage just isn't working. It's not drinkable, at all.

It doesn't get simpler than this. Dunkin's Espresso is just a shot (or three) of its ground espresso. Upon first sip, this tastes like a regular espresso experience. Sure, it's intense and kicks you in the face a bit, but that just goes with the territory. Unfortunately, one second later, you are hit with an aftertaste so sour it makes drinking this as is completely impossible.

The sourness makes you feel like your face is shrinking. Your throat and any part of the inside of your mouth touched by the espresso shot are condemned, with the aftertaste lingering there for actual minutes. It just sits there like an unwelcome coating of dirt. Honestly, this espresso is offensive. Sure, espresso is extreme, but this is just too much. Get your espresso shots elsewhere. At Dunkin', they need milk added.

I am a lifelong fan of hot black teas, but the Bold Breakfast Black Tea is as bland as they come. Even after leaving the tea bag in for an extra long time, this tea isn't very strong, and the flavor is lacking big time. It's certainly not "bold," as the name implies. It doesn't have that kick to it that other black breakfast teas have. The robustness just isn't there, in any form, and is replaced with a dull, watery taste.

Don't get me wrong, if you're a hot black tea person without any other nearby options, this tea is drinkable. It's just in no way remarkable with just the one tea bag. However, you can get a better version of this hot tea at any Starbucks. That said, it's not offensive and is a better drink than the previous two entries on this list — then again, that's not exactly a high bar to clear.

It might seem a bit strange that Decaf Breakfast Black Tea ranks higher than its caffeinated counterpart, but let me explain. This hot tea pretty much tastes exactly like the Bold Breakfast Black Tea, which, okay, definitely isn't a compliment. However, it also kind of is. You see, most decaf hot black teas have a distinct flavor; it's sort of a cotton-like taste that lingers in your mouth. This one does not have that, and therefore, it's a tad higher on the list. 

That said, it's still a decaf version of a not-so-great tea, and it has all the same attributes of it. It's got the same dull blandness as the Bold Breakfast Black Tea, which is why it's only a bit higher in the ranking. Also, "bold" is nowhere in the name, so it's not overtly lying to us, and it's better than most decaf black teas from the grocery store.

The Caramel Craze Signature Latte is made with espresso, milk, caramel swirl, whipped cream, caramel drizzle, and cinnamon sugar topping. And although it looks very pretty in the marketing photos, in reality, it looks so incredibly sad. Removing the lid reveals that all of the ingredients have melted into what looks like a sand-colored cup of milk. Where did all that caramel go? To make matters worse, it's only half full.

This is the sweetest hot drink on the menu at Dunkin' by far, and that's not in a good way. It tastes like liquified sugar, as if someone melted a bunch of hard caramel candies and dumped them into a cup. It's like drinking a big glass of hot, flavored creamer without the coffee. The Caramel Craze Signature Latte is literally just hot candy milk (and one of the drinks you should avoid ordering at Dunkin').

The cappuccino is a classic coffee drink, made with espresso, milk, and foam — or, at least, that's what it's supposed to be. Dunkin's Cappuccino is not this. Instead, it is identical to the chain's latte. Both drinks are three-quarters full, with barely any foam, and taste so incredibly dull. There's also a dirt-like aftertaste that made me very mad.

This drink just isn't a cappuccino. One could make the argument that the foam dissipated into the drink over time, but not much time had passed. Plus, some of the other drinks still had their foam. It's also confusing how dull-tasting it is. Dunkin's oat milk brand is Planet Oat, which has always been one of my favorites. This leads me to believe the problem is the espresso, which, actually, makes sense, seeing as the shot of espresso from earlier in this list was so awful.

This drink made me lose my whole mind. I expected it to be my favorite, as plain lattes are generally my go-to drink at any coffee shop. They're hard to mess up; it's just steamed milk and espresso. The latte at Dunkin', however, is not good. As previously mentioned, it's totally identical to the cappuccino in almost every way. The only edge that the latte has on the cappuccino is that it actually looks like a latte and is filled (mostly) to the top.

Despite that dirty aftertaste and general dullness, neither of the drinks is downright undrinkable, which is why they land right in the middle of the list. If I had no other option in the morning, a latte from Dunkin' would suffice. If you're going to willingly get a hot latte at Dunkin', my recommendation (based on some Reddit research) would be to add some sort of flavoring to it, though.

Dunkin's Cool Mint Herbal Infusion Tea is caffeine-free and made up of peppermint tea leaves, herbs, and cornflower. Overall, this is a good herbal tea option, but only if you're a fan of mint, as the flavor punches you in the face from the very first sip. It's extremely minty, which is not a criticism. It'd be perfect for soothing a sore throat.

It's also really heavy and robust for an herbal tea, but this might have been because I ordered the small size and left the tea bag in for a bit longer. Then again, I did the same with the Bold Breakfast Tea, and it wasn't strong at all. Cool Mint Herbal Infusion is like a denser, less bright version of Starbucks' long-gone Refresh Mint herbal tea, for anyone who remembers a pre-Teavana hot tea lineup at the coffee chain (which was over 10 years ago and back when I worked there). 

Dunkin's hot green tea option is the Harmony Leaf Green Tea, and it's legitimately good. It's definitely the best hot tea option available at Dunkin', beating Cool Mint Herbal Infusion by one ranking. I'm not even a hot green tea person normally, but this one is very flavorful, especially compared to the other teas on the list. It's got a pleasant (and very prominent) grassiness to it.

It's not sweet at all but is better for it. It's bitter, like many green teas are, though it's nothing too overwhelming. This is a great option for a pick-me-up with a little less caffeine. Plus, it has healthy antioxidants. Sure, it sort of tastes like it's from the ground due to how earthy it is, but don't let that deter you from ordering it. Overall, this is a fine green tea and well worth trying, especially if you're a green tea lover.

The Matcha Latte at Dunkin' is simple enough, made up of steamed milk, matcha, and cane sugar. It's creamy and extra sweet — a little too sweet, but not to the point where it's sickening and I don't want to drink it. When I first took the lid off, it looked a little sad. It was barely green, at all, like matcha lattes normally are. I took a sip, and it tasted more like milk than tea. It appeared that Dunkin's matcha latte was an "oops, all milk" version.

I soon realized that it was like this because the matcha powder had entirely sunk to the bottom. I mixed it up and took a sip – it was better, but I had to keep stirring it the whole time I drank it. This stuff just wasn't mixing right — not sure if it was poorly made or if that's just how it goes (I'm not a matcha person). That said, it was still tasty and I liked it more than the previous drinks. I just wish I didn't have to keep stirring it.

I didn't expect to like the Protein Latte, especially after trying Dunkin's matcha version of it. After removing the lid, it looked preserved in a way that didn't make sense. Unlike all of the other drinks on this list, this latte inexplicably had a perfect layer of foam on top. It was disconcerting, like a perfectly preserved mummy in a museum. At first I thought it had something to do with the protein milk, but then I remembered that the Protein Matcha Latte was not like this at all, so it couldn't be that. 

However, upon tasting it, I was met with a drink that actually tasted like coffee and not at all like dirt, as the regular latte did. Amazingly, the Protein Latte tasted more like a latte than the regular latte. It's a little lacking in flavor, but then again, it's a plain latte, so that's pretty normal. And for reference, it's much better than Starbucks' protein-boosted milk and light-years better than the matcha version.

The Hot Chocolate at Dunkin' is extremely simple. It's made of a hot chocolate powder mixed with hot water. The powder is milk-based, so this drink is not available dairy-free. It's much better tasting than most hot chocolate mixes sold at the grocery store. Like a lot of the drinks at Dunkin', it looks a little sad under the lid; the whipped cream has melted, and a little piece of the powder floats around, unmixed.

Luckily, though, the flavor makes up for that. It's a very familiar taste, like a hot chocolate from a carnival or state fair. A little watery and artificial-tasting, but in a very comforting way, it's a flavor from the past that lives in the present at Dunkin'. None of these adjectives are criticisms — I wholeheartedly enjoy this hot chocolate. It's easy to imagine yourself drinking it while walking around some sort of festival after someone served it to you from a huge jug.

Dunkin's Original Blend Coffee is certainly a singular flavor — and oftentimes a polarizing one. Some people love it, while others hate it. I lean towards the "love it" category but wouldn't go that far. It's somewhat confusingly bright and has a sort of sourness to it. For me, these are not criticisms; they're just facts. It's not a drink for every day, but it's a welcome cup of coffee that I always return to.

Compared to most of the hot drinks at Dunkin', the Original Blend Coffee is one of the more reliable options. The drink I got was filled to the top. It was hot and clearly brewed recently, as it didn't taste old at all. This is notable because it's sort of a crapshoot to order a cup of brewed coffee from a chain in the afternoon. It's less busy, and there's always a chance the brewed coffee has been sitting there awhile.

The Dunkin' Americano is two shots of espresso combined with hot water. It is hands down the best black coffee option at Dunkin'. The hot water added to the espresso makes it actually drinkable, compared to the shots of espresso on their own. It doesn't have that sour bite to it like the Original Blend Coffee does, which makes it easier to enjoy on a regular basis.

The main difference between Dunkin's Americano and one served at other coffee chains is that it's so smooth. Normally Americanos are a bit bitter (like at Starbucks, for example), but this one isn't at all. To see if my opinion aligned with an avid hot Americano drinker, I asked my brother, who drinks one daily, to taste test it with me. He was pleasantly surprised and called it a very good and easy-to-drink Americano, without the bitternesss. 

Dunkin's Macchiato is a simple drink. It's just creamy milk and foam topped with two shots of espresso. It looks quite similar to the cappuccino and the latte, but with a full layer of foam and darker in color (since there's more coffee in it, and the shots are poured over the milk). I appreciated that it was also completely filled to the top, unlike many of the other drinks.

When I tasted it, I was shocked — it was really good. It was creamy and actually tasted like coffee, without that dull, dirty taste to it like the cappuccino and latte had. Perhaps the secret to a good Dunkin' drink is the coffee-to-milk balance, which the macchiato does right with the double shot (for the small size, anyway). It's still a little plain, but it tasted like quality coffee milked with steamed milk, and that's good enough for the No. 3 spot.

The Chai Latte is a spicy, cozy drink and one of my personal favorites. Dunkin's is made with chai spices (cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg) mixed with creamy milk, and it's one of the best drinks at the coffee chain. It's not very sweet, as some chai lattes are. The spice sort of outdoes the sweetness, but not by a lot. It's balanced in a way that really works, being subtly sweet and just spicy enough.

It reminds me of the chai lattes that are made with steamed milk and actual tea bags, but without any excessive wateriness. This drink is still very rich and creamy. It also does not have an artificial taste like some other chai lattes. Honestly, in a blind taste test, I might not have been able to tell this beverage was from a chain at all. All in all, this is a really great hot chai latte, and only one hot drink at Dunkin' beats it. I would order this again and again.

I was not expecting to like the Cocoa Mocha Signature Latte, especially after trying the Caramel Craze version. However, even though this signature latte is also very sweet, it's not sickening like its caramel counterpart. Actually, it's pure decadence in liquid form. It's made with espresso, milk, chocolatey mocha swirl, whipped cream, mocha drizzle, and hot chocolate powder, so obviously it's very chocolatey, but this time, that was fine by me.

Sure, it was only two-thirds full, since the whipped cream had melted and any foam that (maybe) was there had dissipated. Really, that's my only beef with this drink — I wanted more of it. And, honestly, there should be more of it because receiving a coffee like this isn't great, and it's way too normal at so many coffee chains. So, when you order it, perhaps ask them to fill it to the top. Either way, the drink itself slaps, and the ingredients combined together are heavenly. It tastes like a hot milkshake. I can't taste the coffee, but I don't care. I'm obsessed with this drink.

I ordered these drinks all at once (then phoned the store to apologize) and tasted each of them one right after the other. Every drink was a size small and ordered as is, without any modifiers. The milk was consistent for as many of them that allowed this — I went with oat milk (lactose intolerant hive, rise). I had a few helpers taste the drinks with me (my dad and brother), and while I asked them what they thought, I was the ultimate judge.