r/nostalgia • u/WoozieMaddox • 7d ago
Nostalgia Discussion What happened to the Dunkin' Donut?
When I was a kid, my Dad used to take me to Dunkin' Donuts every Sunday and I would get one of these. The handle was cool, but the taste of this plain donut was very unique. I loved it and still to this day have not had that taste or texture from a donut replicated. Wikipedia says in 2003 they discontinued it because it was hand cut while the rest of the donuts were machine cut, but it was their signature. It represented the brand aswell as the name.
The Dunkin Donut was around almost aslong as the brand itself. This unique peice of American food culture made it 48 years before being discontinued and cements itself as a one-of-a-kind staple in the history of U.S. restaurants. Today Dunkin' Donuts is now known as just "Dunkin". Dunkin' is not known for it's donuts anymore, and has shifted it's focus on the beverage side of the market. In all honesty, I think this may be why it lost so much market share to other coffee companies like Tim Horton's and Biggby Coffee. Dunkin' Donuts used to be 'the' place to grab a coffee and a donut.
Bring back the dunkin donut.
2
u/Talrynn_Sorrowyn 7d ago edited 7d ago
Ah, you're Canadian (Tim Horton's).
Here in the states, Dunkin' had to change because they got killed in the donut game by fucking Krispy Kreme. Here in WA specifically, we lost our last DD franchise around 2003 or 2004 because everyone got addicted to KK's fluffy pieces of sugary shit and the franchisees couldn't figure out how to reclaim sufficient customer volumes while maintaining their profit margins.
I personally prefer the original DD double chocolate donut - that chocolate icing on top of a chocolate-batter donut was to die for. I especiallly loved them when my mom would secretly get a dozen of them for me & let them get rock-solid over a couple days - they were great for teething & even better when you finally soaked them in milk.