REVIEW: Dunkin’ Butter Pecan Crunch Frozen Coffee

Remember years ago when Dunkin’ used to have a drink called the Coffee Coolatta? Remember how it was the perfect level of sweetness, with just enough pure coffee flavor to scratch that itch for the real stuff without ever descending into bitterness?

If you don’t remember, you may be familiar with Dunkin’s Frozen Coffee, the drink it introduced to replace the Coffee Coolatta in 2017. In theory, Frozen Coffee has a more pronounced coffee flavor and is supposed to be an all-around better concoction. However, I just tried one on a whim a few weeks ago and found the coffee taste too sharp (and I’m someone who often drinks black coffee), while the whole thing danced just below the level of being sickeningly sweet. Maybe I got a bad batch, but it was just too much of a good thing. I appreciate what Dunkin’ was trying to do, but I miss my Coolatta something fierce.

Now, with the Butter Pecan Crunch Frozen Coffee, is it time for me to make peace with this new reality? According to Dunkin’, the drink has Frozen Coffee, Butter Pecan Swirl syrup, and Cocoa Caramel Sprinkles. The beverage is topped with whipped cream, caramel drizzle, and “even more” Cocoa Caramel sprinkles. I didn’t really taste the sprinkles in the drink itself, however.

At first, the drink had that pronounced coffee flavor that I didn’t enjoy with my previous Frozen Coffee. “I knew I couldn’t trust this blasted Frozen Coffee!” I thought, dejected. But as I sipped, something began to happen; the gentle sweetness of the Butter Pecan Swirl syrup tempered the flavor, creating a more mild, almost original Coolatta-like flavor. The flavor addition definitely had some butteriness, but I didn’t really get a nuttiness. I think the overall sweetness might have overwhelmed my palette to the point that I couldn’t really taste anything subtle.

Overall, I liked this so much that I slurped it down really fast and got a stomachache; hey, it’s hard to be a sweets fan with limited tummy real estate. The consequence of this though is that the whipped cream didn’t have time to melt that much, so I was drinking pure whipped cream through a straw by the end. While sucking up the whipped cream, I got the sprinkles, representing the “crunch” in the title.

I don’t know if it would have been a significantly different experience if I consumed it more slowly; maybe if the whipped cream had more time to melt, I would have got the sprinkles in the drink, making for a more “crunchy” treat. However, the Frozen Coffee itself is pretty dense; it’s not like waiting for your whipped cream to melt into a latte, where it can easily disappear into the drink and mix with it. I would say that I’m going to buy it again to investigate this melting theory, but let’s be honest: if I repurchase it, I’ll just shove it all into my face really fast again.

While I personally could do without the whipped topping and just enjoy the drink itself, this is a delightful indulgence. Even so, I still want the original Coffee Coolatta back. Is that so wrong?

Purchased Price: $4.09
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 630 calories, 22 grams of fat, 12 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 70 milligrams of cholesterol, 250 milligrams of sodium, 103 grams of carbohydrates, 97 grams of sugar, and 6 grams of protein.

7 thoughts to “REVIEW: Dunkin’ Butter Pecan Crunch Frozen Coffee”

  1. Looking at Dunkin’s website, it appears that Coolatta is still around; may be a regional issue?

    1. Interesting. On the menu for my Dunkin’ there are “Coolatas” in other flavors, but the coffee one is not available.

  2. “Back in the day”, Dunkin had Coffee Coolattas, Fruit Coolattas, and Vanilla Bean Coolattas. Generally speaking, the coffee ones used a “coffee base” slush and the fruit/vanilla bean ones used a “neutral base” slush. It came out of a machine that regularly froze and spun the bases to keep them a slushy consistency. When they reformulated and rebranded Coffee Coolattas to Frozen Coffees, (generally around the same time) the machine also changed to a commercial-grade frozen drink maker. So instead of the “bases”, the machine now uses straight ice with added coffee syrup or fruit concentrates. I’m guessing “Frozen Coffee” tested as more marketable than “Coffee Coolatta”. But keeping the Coolatta branding for the fruit/vanilla varieties keeps them unique to Dunkin.

    Thank you for coming to my teDD Talk. 🙂

    1. You probably got a stomach ache from the contents of the drink. These are making America fat 1 person at a time. They said there are over 1,000 calories in a medium.

      Also when I got it, it said coffee syrup*

      Coffee syrup?? Why?

      Makes you wonder…

    1. Why is the caramel crunch only for a limited time? I have fallen absolutely in love with this frozen concoction.

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