dunkin donuts review

i want to take a second to provide an evaluation of a product that has a catchy jingle. lunch is over... dinner seems so very far away [i might have gotten it wrong, it doesnt matter.] anyways, based on that song, and my love for blended fruit beverages , i strolled into DD after lunch a few weeks ago. it is less than a block away right outside my building. and i have always been satisfied with all of the other food choices i have had at DD so i figured why not. big mistake.

my favorite part of smoothies is the fruit combined with the blended ice. it can be a healthy refreshing delicious treat. i must confess that while smoothies are my favorite, i also very much enjoy Icee's and have been know to sip on other forms of slurpies aswell. so anyways, at double D they have three flavor options. i dont recall them exactly, but i think it was something like strawberry banana, berry, and mango. i might have made those up, but it doesnt matter. i order the strawberry banana (aka the jamaican jammer) and because it was 100 degrees outside and i was especially thirsty, i went nuts and ordered a large.

i didnt actually ask for a large. the lady taking my order mumbled something after i indicated my choice of flavor to which she responded with a mumble. i couldnt really tell what she was asking but i confess i did say yes and my guess was that she probably asked if i wanted a large. so i get a large. you'd of thought i was at seven11 because i got a gigaGulp. i see the lady grab the keg looking container and haul it towards the back of the store. she does that and scoops some red looking syrup stuff into my barrel. it looked like the fruit toppings you can get at TCBY [which i love]. but it is far from real fruit. it is actual fruit pieces but drenched in a really sweet thick juice. its good in a parfait, but not as the basis for a smoothie. so after the lady has placed this stuff into the cup, she moves right and places my treat under the ice cream machine. turns out its actually yogurt, but you get the point. now the fun part. she blends it. what?

she brings me my smoothie and i taste it. just as i thought, it tastes like what i imagine a gogurt or other kids flavored yogurt would taste like. its sweet, but almost burns your throat when you eat it because of that tangy fake fruit flavor. and there very little evidence of actual fruit pieces. and the top half of it is all runny and the bottom half is like a melted milkshake made with frozen yogurt and sans milk. and i have 63.5 more ounces to go. oh, and it was like $5.00.

i cant say it was the worst thing i have ever had, but given my expectations it was quite disappointing. i was so motivated i actually wrote DD an email and they told me they would send me a refund in the form of gift certificates. i was happy with this solution. i enjoy DD and will go back, i will just be sure not to get another smoothie. i guess i was wrong to assume that all smoothies have ice.

i could not think of anything to write about, then while watching teh redsox game i saw a DD ad and i thought i would write about my smoothie experience. it didnt turn out nearly as well as i had hoped. i waited almost a week to post and then wrote this. [gulp]

--------------------UPDATE-------------------------

I read today in the Washington Post that DD plans to add 325 stores in Washington and Baltimore. I think this is a good idea, as I myself am a little tired of seeing Starbucks dominate. I have seen a few Caribbou' s pop up and have heard good things. I can't provide much of a product comparison because I have only tasted coffee once. I have had chai latte's on multiple occasions but i wouldnt notice a difference from one place to the other. As a non-coffee drinker, i am excited for more DD's because I really enjoy their breakfast choices.

I am sure you have heard others echo my complaint about Starbucks. And that is the stupid names for the sizes. Grande (which means big i am pretty sure) is their code word for small. then tall is medium. I forgot what large is but its super annoying. what is the point in changing the names. multiple times i have been in there and ordered something and said small, medium, or large and i was corrected. it went something like this:

Me: can i get a medium chai latte?
Them: you mean a tall?
Me: is that medium?
Them: no its tall
Me: what does tall mean? i dont want something super tall. I dont want the smallest option and I dont want the biggest. i want the medium size.
Them: we have grande, tall and [insert frustrating name that i cant recall here].
Me: is grande the biggest or smallest?
Them: its shorter than tall and less grande than [annoying name]
Me: so grande, which means big, is the smallest?
Them: well its grande.

Why is it cool to take three sizes of the same thing and give them independant names? i thought names for sizes should reflect their relative size towards each other. i feel like maybe when starbucks made those sizes they didnt know they would own the entire country a few years later. i feel like perhaps they made the sizes to have some character. then they got popular but had to stick with it. plus anyone who likes coffee doesnt seem to mind, its like they want to be part of the cool people. then you have haters like me think its totally pointless. additionally, they are losing potential customers. not only do i think its meaningless and frustrating, it makes me not want to order beverages from them for fear of embaressment and also of having the same conversation that i described above.

I need to check out DD's drink menu one of these days to make sure they didnt fall into the coffee size lingo trap. I will be pissed if they start calling their 3 sizes gigantic, voluminous, and astronomical. Although, having consumed the worlds largest [not that] smoothie I think those names might be appropriate.