Reviews for Dunkin' Donuts

Delicate, perhaps a bit subdued. Vaguely sweet-toned, slightly cardboardy aroma with hints of flowers, nut, and raisiny dark chocolate. Gentle, muted acidity; smooth, almost silky mouthfeel. Very simple in the cup; bare hints of lemon, cocoaish nut, flowers perhaps. Clean finishing; rich in the short but flavor fades quickly in the long.

Balanced and sweet-toned: roasted almond, hints of flowers and cocoa. Delicate, slightly winey acidity; silky to lightly syrupy mouthfeel. The aromatics remain pleasing but lose intensity and turn slightly woody in the cup. The wood prevails almost entirely in a clean but empty finish.

Impressive aroma: Sweetly pungent and grapefruity with cedar, nut and dark chocolate complications. The aromatics remain pleasing and complex in the cup, though they lose intensity. Lightly syrupy mouthfeel. Aromatics fade further in a sweet-toned but empty finish.

Rich, sweet aroma with distinct caramel tones in the finish. Gently lively in the cup, with caramel, cocoa, and temperate fruit notes - I'd call them apple. A low-key cup, just spirited enough to avoid laziness. Several readers nominated Dunkin' Donuts coffees.

This particular sample of Original Blend exhibited an almost academically thorough anthology of coffee taints and shadow defects. Some cups were flat and musty, others seemed additionally green and astringent, and some were rich with a rather pleasant apricot-toned sweet ferment (perhaps what nominating reader Des Cabigan cited as "a sniff of oranges"). But not a single cup appeared on the table without some taint or other. Presumably the several nominating readers based their emails on a better iteration of the Original Blend than this one, something closer to the version to which I gave an 87 rating in 2002.

Rather intensely acidy, with clean floral and wine-toned fruit notes that deepen toward a bright chocolate in the finish. The acidity is clean and free of astringency, but may be too aggressive for some coffee drinkers.