Wednesday January 13, 2016 | 10 comments
I’m a penny pincher. I don’t wear that moniker with pride by any means, but I will say that I am a sucker for a sale. So when the Dunkin’ Donuts app on my phone informed me I could get a hot tea for a dollar, I used it as an opportunity to try their new “Premium Hot Teas”. For those unaware, Dunkin’ Donuts is a national chain in the U.S. known for its coffee and doughnuts.
The little cardboard ad on the counter makes it look appealing. The now-familiar pyramid sachets are here to stay, it seems, and Dunkin’ is offering their own selection of loose-leaf teas, including “Cool Mint”, “Hibiscus Kiss”, and “Harmony Leaf”. Is Dunkin’ trying to take on Starbucks with this tea? Bloomberg seemed to think so. I’m not so sure.
I settled on their “Bold Breakfast” blend, as I figured the best way to test the waters is with either a “standard” black tea or a green tea. Unfortunately, what I found wasn’t much better than run-of-the-mill teabags.
After finishing my cup, I took a look at the sachet itself, and it looks just like any other. Designed to let leaves expand during the steeping process, it was relatively large, and had a lot of leaves (but not too many) stuffed into it. The problem was when I realized that the leaves themselves were still a low-quality broken bunch of leaves, more resembling the inside of a paper shredder than anything else. This isn’t high-quality stuff, and it has the same problems that a standard teabag does.
There’s not a lot of flavor, and I kept the tea steeping hoping the flavor would come through. But before it could get there, the tea became bitter, and I wasn’t able to get the taste I was looking for. I suspect that true problem is that no matter what size cup you get, you only get the one teabag. This means that unless you get a small cup, you’re never going to have enough tea leaves to flavor your cup properly. This is less a problem with Dunkin’ Donuts as much as it is a problem with almost every restaurant serving tea.
A place dedicated to coffee like Dunkin’ (or Starbucks, or Peet’s) knows that to make a competent cup of coffee, you need to get the proportions right. Making a four-cup pot requires more grounds than a two-cup pot. Why this simple logic escapes them when making tea (a much easier process, really) drives me crazy.
I think that the new Dunkin’ Donuts Premium tea might be decent if they were willing to put more tea in the cup, but until cafes use the same proportion rules they use for coffee on making tea, I will be disappointed. An improvement? Definitely. “Premium”? Not even close. But is anyone surprised?
Note: As far as I am aware, this Premium Tea from Dunkin’ Donuts is currently limited to the Chicago area. I’m curious to know if it has expanded to any other markets, especially if this is meant to replace Dunkin’s current stock of standard teabags.
Michelle knows what I’m going to say, I’m sure. :) It’s not just the tea, it’s the brewing process. Imagine being handed a cup of coffee with a bag of grounds (yes, there are such things available). Tea is so disrespected it’s unbelievable. Actually, without an excellent, commercial quick-brew/mass process, everyone is pretty much up a creek on by the cup to go tea. We hope to change all that, hopefully this year! :)
Can’t be soon enough for me Diane.
If this only was the case at places like DD, I don’t think I’d have an issue. But this happens almost everywhere. Even in some tea shops they’ll just chuck a bag in a travel cup and hand it to you. I’ve had to inform my mother that she’s allowed to ask for an extra paper cup at the Starbucks for her teabag so her tea doesn’t get too bitter.
A tea shop I used to work at started a policy in the summer months where you had to choose from three or four pre-brewed flavors of iced tea because people would complain they had to wait four whole minutes for a cup of iced tea.
What a shame Tony. Now a whole new group of people will be introduced to tea that isn’t very tasty. This sets the tea industry back I think. They’ve done us no favors at all. Most unfortunate.
This is why I am very confused as to why anyone, especially those in the tea industry, would be adverse to a commercial leaf brewer that would promote the tea experience. There is no tradition that cannot be broken when something better is available, is there?
You are absolutely right.
It is nice to know that Dunkin Donuts starts to enter the world of tea industry, imagine taking a break Donuts and cup of tea. And hopefully they will improve its tea quality for better.
The DD Bold Breakfast is definitely a different taste than I am used to from DD. I’m on the east coast and this is my first DD tea of the season so I’ll assume all of my local DD’s are now on the new blend in the pyramid tea bags.
I am disappointed. The new tea has a bit of a perfumy taste to it. I am certainly not a tea aficionado and don’t drink anything other than black(hot and iced regularly), green (iced occasionally) and an occasional vanilla chai, however I prefer a very neutral flavor when it comes to a standard black tea and this is not “plain” enough for me.
I have never had a hot tea at Starbucks but now I’m tempted.
DD has lost my breakfast business in the past and is losing it again. (re: iced tea quality and consistency in the summer and now this hot tea issue). I will elaborate on the iced tea only to say it often has a coffee taste and there is only 1 or 2 DD’s in my entire region that consistently make it right so i have to out of my way if I really want an iced tea when I am out and about. This is an area where Starbucks is getting my tea money already despite higher prices as they make it right all the time.
Yeah, I imagine for the most part they use the same pots for tea and coffee and don’t do a thorough enough job cleaning them out. I don’t know what it is about subpar black tea but I totally get what you’re saying. It tastes almost like they’ve added extra “tea flavor” to compensate for their leaves.
Totally disagree. The “Bold Breakfast” blend is so good, I bought it independently on Amazon, and it is not inexpensive. Normally I drink english or irish breakfast tea. I love the Bold Breakfast blend, is tasty and if steeped properly full bodied. I do use sugar and milk/half and half in my tea so perhaps my experience is different than the author’s. I actually sent a box to a friend for Christmas.