Starbucks vs. Dunkin’: Holiday edition
Grab your North Face and your Uggs, time to be basic
It’s a rare day in State College when you don’t see somebody carrying a cup of coffee on the way to class. Even during the bitterest cold of days, the morning cup isn’t sacrificed. As soon as the limited time flavors pop-up around the holidays, it seems like everyone will wait longer and longer for a prized cup. With several Starbucks locations and one bumping Dunkin’ location, Penn Staters are able to get their fix all over town… but who has the best holiday cup?
I went out and tried them all, each location having their own three specialty flavors. I rated each drink on a scale of 1-5 using this criterion: the effort put into making my brew, the consistency of the drink, the perfect sip, and the overall quality.
With a full bladder and slight heart palpitations, this is what I found out.
Starbucks
Hand-crafted and made just for you.
Chestnut Praline Latte:
Effort: 5/5
Someone took the time to gingerly top this with whipped cream and cinnamon.
Consistency: 5/5
Thick and smooth, the perfect drink to soothe a sore throat or clear out your sinuses. (ew)
Perfect Sip: 3/5
Way too hot. It burnt my tongue, which is something I won’t soon forget.
Overall: 4/5
The Chestnut Praline Latte was definitely the best drink that Starbucks had to offer. It tasted like building a gingerbread house with your grandma and that will never be a bad thing.
Peppermint Mocha:
Effort: 3/5
I feel like by the end of the season, every Starbucks employee is sick of hearing the words Peppermint and Mocha. I see right through your chocolate syrup drizzle.
Consistency: 5/5
They’ve really nailed the ratio in this one. Not quite hot chocolate, not quite coffee, but no one is mad about it.
Perfect Sip: 5/5
Tastes like you’re home, you know?
Overall: 5/5
You can’t fight a good thing. You might pretend to hate that this drink arrives two months early every year, but do you really?
Caramel Brulee Latte:
Effort: 3/5
Topped with a dollop of whipped cream, topped with some halfway-melted, chewy, caramel-shards.
Consistency: 3/5
Super sweet at the top and a little bitter towards the bottom.
Perfect Sip: 2/5
Face puckering sweet.
Overall: 3/5
If you’re the Pillsbury dough boy looking for an afternoon pick me up, you might have found your perfect cup, but otherwise steer clear.
Dunkin’ Donuts
That quick cup, though.
Snickerdoodle:
Effort: 2/5
But then again, how hard is it to put some syrup in a cup.
Consistency: 5/5
Well mixed and smooth through and through.
Perfect sip: 5/5
Despite it being iced coffee, it some howmanaged to warm me up.
Overall: 5/5
By far my favorite holiday Dunkin’ drink, even the day I heard it was back I ran out my door for some more.
Peppermint Mocha:
Effort: 3/5
I mean, there is not one, but TWO different syrups in this guy.
Consistency: 3/5
All of the mocha was at the bottom. I had to really whirl my straw around in there to make it even partially even.
Perfect sip: 4/5
It’s what you wanted and it’s what you got. Maybe missing a bit of the “wow” factor.
Overall: 4/5
You can’t hide from the deliciousness. It’ll always be there for you, causing you to have nostalgic flashbacks to your first.
Sugar Cookie:
Effort: 2/5
Nothing special.
Consistency: 2/5
All of the syrup was collected at the bottom and this was a huge issue.
Perfect sip: 1/5
Grainy, super sweet, I didn’t even want to take another sip.
Overall: 1/5
It tasted like lotion and I hated it.
By and large, I think Starbucks really knows what’s up when it comes to spreading a cup of holiday cheer, but you’ll definitely pay the price for it. I spent around a total of $15 for three small cups of these coffees. For all three at Dunkin’ I paid around $5 and while they didn’t necessarily look as pretty or well mixed, they’d do the trick for a college kid on a budget.
Let your mom buy you the Starbucks: she misses you and will do anything to spend a little time with you over break.