Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

Bud Light, White Claw, and Dunkin’ Donuts are about to go to war in the spiked drinks category (seriously)

Dunkin' Spiked brings coffee, tea to the spiked market

Lindsay Parrill
By
Dunkin' spiked drinks
Dunkin' Donuts

Joining in on a trend that just doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, Dunkin’ Donuts is the newest competitor to throw its hat into the boozy beverages ring. Jumping on the increasingly crowded bandwagon, Dunkin’ will be riding alongside Bud Light, White Claw, and Twisted Tea in its endeavor to give the people what they want — an easily drinkable, tasty beverage with a boozy adult upgrade.

Brian Gilbert, Vice President of Retail Business Development at Dunkin’ said in a recent press release, “We knew we had the opportunity to create something special when we saw the positive response to our previous seasonal collaborations for Dunkin’-inspired beers. The growing appetite for adult beverages inspired us to put a twist on our customers’ favorite Dunkin’ Iced Coffee, Iced Tea, and Refresher flavors. Dunkin’ Spiked is perfect for day or night enjoyment and comes in eight distinct flavors, available in grocery and package stores later this month. This new line of ready-to-drink adult beverages elevates Dunkin’s offerings, and we know our 21+ fans will love every sip.”

Recommended Videos

All about Dunkin’ Donuts’ spiked beverages

The new iced coffee flavors will include Spiked Original, Spiked Caramel, Spiked Mocha, and Spiked Vanilla. And if you’re more of a tea drinker, there are some refreshing options for you, too. Spiked Slightly Sweet Iced Tea, Spiked Half & Half Iced Tea, Dunkin’ Spiked Strawberry Dragonfruit Iced Tea Refresher, and Dunkin’ Spiked Mango Pineapple Iced Tea Refresher are also hitting the shelves soon.

Related

While customers may be a bit startled at seeing an otherwise “wholesome” brand trying its hand in the alcohol game, the timing does seem to be suspiciously perfect. After all of the absurd drama in the world of canned booze this year, perhaps customers are looking to change gears. Poor Bud Light seems to be trying everything to keep its head above water after drowning in a sea of homophobic protestation and boycotts. Bud Light sales have plummeted, including those of its otherwise popular Bud Light seltzer, which was terribly hard hit this summer.

While less controversial than Bud Light, the shiny new excitement of White Claw’s revolution is quickly being run over by better-tasting alternatives. Brands like Spritz Society and Simply Spiked are doing the same thing, but better. Now seems to be the perfect time for Dunkin’ to enter the race. And hey — the combination of coffee and alcohol is always a win in our book, so we’re all for it.

While you may fear that Dunkin’ might be lonely there in the liquor aisle, the blackest of sheep in a place it has no business being, we suspect other uncomfortable oddities like Hard Mountain Dew and Spiked Sunny D will befriend it in no time, so worry not.

Those eager to buy these new Dunkin’ Donuts beverages can do at grocery stores in 12 states for the time being – Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and Vermont. Spiked Iced Tea flavors will be available at the end of this month, while Spiked Iced Coffees will be in stores in early September.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Lindsay Parrill
Lindsay Parrill
Contributor
Lindsay is a graduate of California Culinary Academy, Le Cordon Bleu, San Francisco, from where she holds a degree in…
The best whiskey options to make your Manhattan drink recipe even better
Rye whiskey is classic, but not the only option
Manhattan

The Manhattan is one of the most well-known classic cocktails ever created. Like many famous mixed drinks, its history is a bit mysterious. One version of the story says that the drink was made at New York City’s Manhattan Club in the 1870s by a bartender named Iain Marshall. There is a mention of the drink in the later 1800s in a book written by bartender Wiliam F. Mulhall. Regardless of who created it, this whiskey-driven cocktail has stood the test of time.

Whiskey matters
This iconic drink is similar to the Old Fashioned, except instead of whiskey, sugar, water, and Angostura bitters, the Manhattan is made with whiskey, Angostura bitters, and sweet vermouth. While the other ingredients are important, the whisky is the key. The bitters add a bit of spice to the mix, and the vermouth adds a fruity sweetness, but the big, bold flavor is the whisky. The other ingredients are only there so the whiskey can shine through.

Read more
Bourbon snifters: What they’re good for, which bourbon you should drink from them, and more
Why you should have bourbon snifters, and what to drink from them
Snifter

If you’re new to bourbon, you probably pour your favorite whiskey into a rocks glass with or without ice and sip it while you binge-watch the newest show du jour on Netflix and call it good. And while that’s all well and good, as we aren’t here to tell anyone how to imbibe whiskey, you might not be enjoying it as much as you could be. That’s to say that there are whiskey glasses designed to elevate and heighten your whiskey-tasting experience.

Don’t believe us? Just take your classic rocks glass, for example. It’s fairly uniform and unexciting. It’s designed for cocktails. That’s because when you drink an Old Fashioned. Sazerac, or Whiskey Sour the experience is all about the various flavors the ingredients (when combined with whiskey) create.

Read more
Our 4 favorite whiskey drinks, ranked
The best whiskey drinks, ranked
Whiskey cocktail

We love whiskey. We love it all: bourbon, single-malt Scotch, rye whiskey, Irish whiskey, and Japanese whisky. We enjoy it neat, on the rocks, and especially mixed into our favorite classic cocktails. The latter is what we’re going to get into today.

We don’t have to tell you that whiskey is a great spirit to mix with. There’s a reason some of the most well-known cocktails ever created use whiskey as the base or, at the very least, one of the main ingredients. Take a look at any list of “classic” cocktails. While you’ll see many made with gin, vodka, tequila, and other spirits, many of the most well-known feature whiskey.

Read more