Donut fear: Our picks for the best Dunkin’ are here
Have you ever wondered which local Dunkin’ is the best? Well we’re here to help!
Dunkin’ Donuts was originally founded in 1950 by Bill Rosenberg in Quincy, Massachusetts, and in 2019 the name was changed to Dunkin’. There are now more than 13,200 Dunkin’s worldwide, with over 9,000 of those in the U.S. alone.
Over the course of two days, we went to three different Dunkin’ locations in the valley, and based on taste, quality, speed, and customer service experience, we ranked them.
We chose our Dunkin’s to test based on local convenience as well as recommendations to see if they held true. We went to two locations in Amherst and one location in Sunderland, which we heard had good reviews.
For all three Dunkin’s, we decided to use the drive thru service in order to ensure an accurate timing of how fast or slow it took to make our order. To ensure accurate rankings, we also had the same order for each Dunkin’.
Our order was one small mango pineapple refresher with light ice, one small cold brew with cream and sugar, and a frosted donut.
Our first location, and coincidentally our lowest rated, was the Dunkin’ on College Street, a popular location for ARHS students due to the proximity to the school.
We decided to rate it a 6/10 for a multitude of reasons, with the most significant detractors being the limited variety of donuts and the poor drink quality.
The coffee was watery, and the mango pineapple refresher was filled with ice, and the light ice request wasn’t on the order slip even though it had been repeated back to us. When we ordered a strawberry frosted donut just before 11am, we were told they didn’t have any and we had to order a chocolate frosted instead.
This took off a point from our rating, although it was later gained back when we got to the drive thru window and were given two chocolate frosted donuts for the price of one. The four points taken off were for the mediocre customer service, and the poor quality of the drinks.
The second location was the Dunkin’ on University Drive. Being in a more busy location than the College Street Dunkin’, we expected a longer wait time, but we were pleasantly surprised to have little, to no wait in the drive thru. This was also surprising since there were more customers than College Street.
There were more employees inside, and they were fast and efficient with the drive thru. University Drive also had a larger selection of donuts and gave us a drink tray automatically.
The quality of our drinks and food was relatively good. The mango refresher was far too sweet, and the coffee was only a bit stronger and less watery. While our drinks were not the best, the donut was significantly better.
It was fluffy and thick and helped boost our rating. Overall, we gave the Dunkin’ on University Drive a 8.5/10. The quality/taste of our order was average, but the drive thru and customer service was exceptional, and it has proved to be the superior Dunkin in Amherst.
Our third and final Dunkin’ was a bit of a drive, compared to the two previous locations, with it being in Sunderland along Route 116.
We ended up rating this location a 9/10 with only one point being taken off for having forgotten our donut. However, we noticed this while still at the window and it was given to us very shortly after it was brought to their attention.
The service was incredibly fast, even though there had been two other cars in line ahead of us. The drink quality was the best we’d encountered throughout all the other Dunkin’s, with the coffee being stronger tasting with not too much sugar. The mango refresher had the best light ice we’d ever seen, with just a few ice cubes and a stronger flavor of the refresher, again without the overpowering sweetness we’d experienced prior.
The customer service was also significantly better than the others, with our drinks being put in a drink tray with plenty of napkins and straws, and the woman at the drive thru was incredibly friendly and helpful when we needed the donut. The donut itself was also the best of the three, with it being much fluffier and fresher tasting than the rest.
We hope this helps you make your dough-cision the next time you head over to Dunkin’!
College Street: (6/10)
Speed: (6/10)
Customer service: (7/10) extra point for extra donut
Quality: (5/10)
University Drive: (8.5/10)
Speed: (10/10)
Customer service: (8/10)
Quality: (7/10)
Sunderland: (9/10)
Speed: (10/10)
Customer service: (10/10)
Quality: (8/10) one point taken off for forgotten donut
