Dunkin’ Donuts is discontinuing the popular Coffee Coolatta and debuting a new summer drink.
In place of the soon-discontinued drink, the donut chain will introduce the new Frozen Dunkin’ Coffee, a blended beverage taking off from its classic iced coffee.
Coffee Coolatta ‘Not Good Enough’
“Our Coffee Coolatta isn’t good enough,” said Dunkin’s senior VP for brand marketing Chris Fuqua in a media presentation last March 21.
The Coffee Coolatta contains 990 calories and 133 grams of sugar in the form of a large frozen order — the same amount of calories found in three chocolate crème donuts and nearly 10 times as much sugar content.
For Dunkin’ executives, it’s time to branch out: the new drink is poised to cater to regular coffee lovers who are seeking a caffeine fix in hot weather. Like its predecessor, the Frozen Coffee in a 32-ounch large cup with cream offers 840 calories as well as 123 grams of sugar. Large skim, on the other hand, contains 550 calories and 125 grams of sugar.
Fuqua told Today Food that the new drink will offer Dunkin’ guests “a more authentic, energizing coffee-drinking experience” versus the old favorite. According to him, it will hit stores in summer this year, with a medium selling for $3.99.
Fans of the fruity Coolattas, however, need not despair, as those will stay on the menu alongside other frozen treats such as the Fruit Smoothies, Frozen Vanilla Chai, Frozen Dunkaccino, and Hot Chocolate-Frozen.
Reinventing The Frozen Lineup
Paul Racicot, who leads the company’s culinary innovation, said it’s time that they “contemporize” their frozen drink roster. The recent swap, for instance, is part of a bigger initiative to serve more coffee-centric items as the coffee culture intensifies across the nation.
In the previous summer, for instance, Dunkin’ launched cold brew coffee and is now testing nitro cold brew in five location with aims of expanding the test. In Maine as well as in Florida, too, the firm is serving Caramel Shaved Iced Espresso to test the market.
The name of survival is pretty clear: for Dunkin’ brand marketing manager Anthony Bonitatibus, it’s all about thinking ahead of the “next big thing on coffee.”
Apart from the new cold coffee product, the chain is also introducing new donut flavors, namely Chocolate Pretzel and Peanut Butter delight croissant donut.
Other Steps To Innovation
In April last year, Dunkin’ introduced a brand-new version of its mobile app, including new features such as on-the-go ordering and favorites, as well as advanced imagery. The coffee wars were heating up well back then, and the updated app was seen as a step against rival Starbucks.
Prior to that time, on-the-go ordering was still unavailable in many areas.
A couple of months after, the ubiquitous food brand announced an offer to deliver directly to the doors of New York customers through the DoorDash app and service. It was made in recognition of the fact that their market in the areas are “some of the busiest and most loyal customers,” and for them to get around town can be time-consuming.
Early this year, Starbucks grappled with the issue of its mobile order-and-pay leading to bottlenecks in stores and actually making people impatient waiting for their Starbucks drink in long lines.
