Dunkin Donuts Iced Pumpkin Macchiato [Review]

AndrewSeptember 30, 2015

Beverage ReviewsDunkin' DonutsReviews3 Comments

As the leaves begin to turn and start to fall mercilessly in your yard, you can bet your bottom dollar that the fall seasoned beverages will be pumped out en masse. Dunkin Donuts released their pumpkin coffees, iced coffees, lattes, muffin, and donuts at the beginning of September, but this year they have released a new drink variation mid season. Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Macchiato comes in both hot and ices variations and is advertised to have layers of flavor. While not exactly a true macchiato as we detailed yesterday, the essential ingredients are all there.

The Ingredients:

Ice
Pumpkin Swirl
Espresso
Whole Milk

A flavor swirl of pumpkin is incorporated into milk for the bottom layer, while a double shot of espresso serves as the top layer of the iced version. While this is the variety I opted for, the hot version has pumpkin infused steamed milk on the bottom, with espresso and foamed milk serving as additional layers.

First Impressions:

The pumpkin macchiato at Dunkin Donuts are premium priced at somewhere around a half dollar mark up over the latte counterparts. One can imagine the extra helping of espresso contributes to this price, but one must hope that this is the case because this beverage could easily be confused with a standard flavored latte depending on preparation. Website documentation as well as commercials boast this beverage as being hand-crafted, doing everything they can to convince consumers that this not just any seasonal drink and is worth the premium price. Somewhat skeptical upon ordering, I was pleasantly surprised when, despite the initial “ordering on the first day” confusion, the beverage handed to me indeed had the intended layer appearance.

To me, it seems that a macchiato would be better consumed by sipping to truly experience the multiple layers, because as soon as I put the straw into the socket, the layers were gone and I pretty much had what looked like a standard iced latte. Regardless of appearances and pinky out coffee drinking, the beverage was very enjoyable. The swirl of milk and sugary pumpkin flavor permeated throughout the espresso creating a great blend. The espresso quickly distributed throughout my blood stream, waking me up to the point where the deep, dark, cloudy, autumn sky above wasn’t quite so depressing anymore. The Iced Pumpkin Macchiato is a real solid drink, although not very different from its iced latte step-cousin.

Dunkin Donuts Iced Pumpkin Macchiato – The Verdict

While the Iced Version of these macchiatos really don’t have many differentiating factors, besides extra espresso, initial appearance, and 50 cent upcharge, I would be intrigued to see how the hot ones compares. Despite the very Instagram worthy opening photo you get, the bulk of this beverage experience is identical to a latte. This doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a very enjoyable, flavorful fall time sipper.