Fun Food Friday: Dunkin' Donuts

Dunkin’ Donuts holds a very special place in our hearts. Not because of their awesome coffee or delicious donuts, but because this was the place where we had our first date. In fact, we had a lot of coffee dates at DD before we said ‘I do’. When we found out DD had stores in Shanghai, we were all over Google like white on rice. According to Google, Shanghai has four locations. The closest store is three miles from our home, so for date night this week, not only did we get a sweet treat, but we also got some exercise.

Tim’s absolute favorite donut is boston cream. We arrived at 7pm and unfortunately, they were sold out.

The flavors available in China are a bit different than that of the USA. For instance, how about dry pork and seaweed or a dried bonito (type of fish) donut – doesn’t that sound delicious???? Thankfully DD also stocks some of the sweet stuff like blueberry with coconut, toffee chocolate and double chocolate. 

Mochi donuts and munchkins were the only types of donuts available when we arrived. Mochi donuts are made of short-grained, glutinous rice and are available in flavors such as glazed, green tea, yogurt, orange, mocha and chocolate. We tried a chocolate one.  They are bit denser and dryer than your typical donut; definitely not as sweet as the donuts available in the States, but it was fun to try something new!

The Chinese munchkin wasn’t anything to write home about either. You will notice the shape is not perfectly round. It was more chunks of very lightly sweetened donut. Again – a fun experience, but I wouldn’t order them again. We tried chocolate and raisin.  

Other food offered included cheese and rye bagels, tuna and ham sandwiches, cumin pork chop sandwiches  and purple rice, to name a few.

Now onto coffee – first the original DD coffee tasted just as good as I remember. I got a black coffee – I am ridiculously cheap and was not willing to pay an extra $.50 just for flavoring. It was hot and black and oh, so good.  To take home a pound would set you back a little more than $16 - a tad more than I remember paying just a few months ago in Greenville, SC! Coffee was available in hazelnut, caramel and vanilla flavorings.

Tim tried an iced caramel swirl latte with whipped cream on top. As much as everything else in the store lacked sugar, the whipped cream definitely satisfied his sweet tooth! He said it tasted exactly the same as the States, except for the temperature - it was lukewarm.  

We didn’t try a coolatta; however, they are available in strawberry, coffee, blueberry, orange, banana, mango and green tea flavors.

Being in China, tea took up a large section of the Dunkin’ Donuts menu with flavors such as pineapple fruit tea, lichi fruit tea, passion fruit and blueberry jasmine tea and banana milk tea.

I am not sure why, but after I paid the cashier, he gave me a free DD mug which I was super pumped about because it was a lot larger than the small cups I have been using. 

Other souvenirs available for purchase included a DD branded mouse pad, paper file and pillow. 

Now China doesn’t ‘Run on Dunkin’; in China, Dunkin’ Donuts is ‘Good to you’. The brand is marketed a bit differently over here.

It was a lot of fun trying a China Dunkin’ Donuts and although not as tasty as the States, made for a pretty sweet date night!