Question For Dunkin Donuts Coffee Drinkers Here: Has Your Area DD Gone Downhill Lately?

September 24, 2021, 01:47 PM

I'm a big fan of DD iced coffee and also the hot coffee but it seems like in the past 6 months or so that all the area DD's have gone noticeably downhill as far as quality of coffee and service.

I understand that no one wants to work a freakin' service job anymore, they'd rather sit home and get paid by the government 2-3x more but JEEZ! These places are a mess, some of them won't even open their doors for walk-in service and make you wait in an insane long line at the drive-through that is backed up into the street. I can't tell you how many times I've now driven off after seeing 20+ cars lined up, and it's at like 2-3 pm on a Monday! Not at 8-9 am when you think it would be super busy.

I swear they are starting to try and save money by watering down their iced coffee too. The past few I've had were like light brown water with a coup of cream in it. WTF?

Has anyone else encountered this? It seems like they've gotten far busier and more popular in the age of Covid than before but they lost something in the process and it's not good.

September 24, 2021, 01:50 PM

HRK

Don't hit the stores but do buy DD coffee at the local grocer, couple o jugs of the stuff for a week.

Try to avoid food service places for the most part, workers, let alone good service people are hard to find.

September 24, 2021, 01:54 PM

preten2b

Years ago if you ask
me. Have not purchased donuts in 5 years.

September 24, 2021, 01:55 PM

spunk639

Dunkin Donuts started going down the drain in the early 90's they were originally in Quincy first shop and it's still open, when they expanded beyond the NE area got to big too fast and th brand suffered.

September 24, 2021, 01:58 PM

Oaklane

Their coffee used to be my favorite, now the only way I can stomach it is if I buy it and make my own. I’m originally from back east and I swear there were Dunkins on every corner it seemed like. Now my preference is Bigby which is still a chain out of Mi and is somewhat regional.

September 24, 2021, 04:55 PM

nhtagmember

One of the local DD’s is on my way to the airport and for the past five years it’s been pretty good. However for the past year it’s been very weak and almost tasteless. Light brown water.

I quit going there. Even if I haven’t had my coffee I will go without before I go to that store again.

It’s not a heavily traffic’d location so they can’t claim to be in a rush.

September 24, 2021, 05:13 PM

erj_pilot

Not at all. Through the drive-thru, I just get a large hot coffee with extra cream and they deliver! Usually tip a buck...

"If you’re a leader, you lead the way. Not just on the easy ones; you take the tough ones too…” – MAJ Richard D. Winters (1918-2011), E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne

"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil... Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel." - Isaiah 5:20,24

September 24, 2021, 05:14 PM

Lefty Sig

Ever since DD had the reduction down to just D I find myself less interested.

September 24, 2021, 05:54 PM

Karpteach

I buy Dunkin coffee by the 1 pound bags. I grind the coffee and brew at home. I don’t drink outside coffee as I like my coffee strong.

September 24, 2021, 06:02 PM

dsiets

Used to be one of my favorites but I don't drink coffee anymore due to acquiring caffeine anxiety/sensitivity.
When I did drink coffee, I loved DD but the local one closed down years ago.

September 24, 2021, 06:10 PM

frayedends

I had this problem maybe 15 years ago and gave up. Every once in a while I would get a good Dunkin Iced. But usually it was so weak it tasted like cream. When it was strong it was that awful bitter flavor of bad coffee that's been burnt.

I've tried them now and then over the years when nothing else is around but still the same. Totally inconsistent.

September 24, 2021, 08:13 PM

Syngin1066

Honestly, I always thought is was weak sauce. I lived in NE for years and never got the appeal. Fun fact, their bagged coffee sold in stores is made by Folgers.

September 24, 2021, 08:28 PM

Rick Lee

Their coffee is great if you make it at home and at about twice the strength as they brew it in the stores. Their donuts and other breakfast stuff are pretty good. I still think Safeway's bakery stuff is better when it's totally fresh.

September 24, 2021, 09:43 PM

PASig

My wife just happened upon this on Facebook today:

September 27, 2021, 08:04 AM

Graniteguy

PA Sig - you nailed it !!

October 02, 2021, 07:18 PM

PASig

Update: the final straw was today and I’m done

Had my two young sons in the car and on the way home from soccer games, it’s 1:15 pm and no ones eaten lunch yet and I need some caffeine so I pull into the DD drive-thru on the way home. There’s 3 cars ahead, and the first two move off quickly, then the one in front of me literally takes 10 minutes to order the what must have been 120 items. Then I pull up and order my usual large iced coffee, no sugar, just cream.

Then proceed to sit

And sit

And sit

And sit

15 minutes into it I put the car into park

5 minutes later I say “fuck this” and get out of line and drive back around the front to see WTF is going on that takes 20+ minutes to make an iced coffee.

I was pissed. The 3 employees inside have ZERO, absolutely ZERO sense of urgency and have a deer in the headlight look when I tell them I want my iced coffee right now and what the hell is going on with their drive thru? There is NO ONE inside the goddamed place so they can’t be that busy.

The guy sullenly hands me my coffee and I walk out, take a taste and it’s literally water with cream. Not even a hint of coffee flavor

That goes right in the trash, their app gets deleted off my phone and I will not set foot in a DD ever again.

Fuck this clown show of a so-called coffee shop

October 02, 2021, 07:40 PM

1s1k

quote:
Originally posted by PASig:
Update: the final straw was today and I’m done

Had my two young sons in the car and on the way home from soccer games, it’s 1:15 pm and no ones eaten lunch yet and I need some caffeine so I pull into the DD drive-thru on the way home. There’s 3 cars ahead, and the first two move off quickly, then the one in front of me literally takes 10 minutes to order the what must have been 120 items. Then I pull up and order my usual large iced coffee, no sugar, just cream.

Then proceed to sit

And sit

And sit

And sit

15 minutes into it I put the car into park

5 minutes later I say “fuck this” and get out of line and drive back around the front to see WTF is going on that takes 20+ minutes to make an iced coffee.

I was pissed. The 3 employees inside have ZERO, absolutely ZERO sense of urgency and have a deer in the headlight look when I tell them I want my iced coffee right now and what the hell is going on with their drive thru? There is NO ONE inside the goddamed place so they can’t be that busy.

The guy sullenly hands me my coffee and I walk out, take a taste and it’s literally water with cream. Not even a hint of coffee flavor

That goes right in the trash, their app gets deleted off my phone and I will not set foot in a DD ever again.

Fuck this clown show of a so-called coffee shop

You should have gone to Starbucks for a worse experience. The line out into the street blocking traffic would have told you the same without even having to get into line. Then on the off chance that the line looks unusually short you can get up to the order screen and see a hand scribbles note that says they are closing at 5:00pm for the foreseeable future. You look at your watch and it's 2:45pm and they are already closed. I can't imagine being the owner and missing out on a fortune in business opportunities every single day.

October 03, 2021, 09:17 AM

Graniteguy

The employees are burned out trying to do the work of 2x-3x. I don't begrudge them. I actually saw a newly remodeled Dunks in N. Conway, NH closed at 12noon on a Wednesday. I asked about the closure at the next Dunks I came to and the guy at the window said the same company owns 5 of them along RT 16 and can only staff 3 of them right now.

You are better off buying your own grinder and machine and brewing your own coffee at home. I don't know a lot about grinding gourmet beans but I am researching it this upcoming week.