If I’m being honest, I don’t think I’ve had a single Pop-Tart for at least ten years. By contrast, I have Dunkin Donuts coffee on the reg. So, when I heard that Dunkin Donuts Pop-Tarts were being sold in stores, I figured that maybe now was the time to get back to my breakfast roots.
Plus, if you’ve been watching the Spoon University Snapchat at all in the past couple of weeks, you’ll know that these treats are popping up at Spoon launch events all over the country. What was it about these Dunkin Donuts Pop-Tarts that was making everyone go crazy for them? And, more importantly, how do they measure up to my favorite coffee?
I enlisted the help of some great research scientists (aka hungry college students) to help me compare these two treats. Plus, your girl can eat, but there’s no way I could polish off a box of each flavor by myself.
To get an accurate comparison, my friends and I tried each Pop-Tart and then compared it to the Dunkin beverage each pastry was supposed to emulate.
The flavors in production right now are Vanilla Latte and Chocolate Mocha. This taste test was definitely weird, but much easier than putting your coffee in the toaster, am I right?
But first, coffee!
To do the experiment, I ordered a small mocha swirl iced coffee and a small vanilla iced latte from the Dunks near my school. I guessed that the Dunkin Donuts Pop-Tarts would be based on a “regular” order. For those uninitiated on Dunks culture, “regular” means with standard cream and sugar.
So, what did we think of these coffees before we tried the Dunkin Donuts Pop-Tarts?
“They’re freaking delicious.”
“I think the vanilla is more vanilla-y than the mocha is chocolatey.”
“The mocha is very strong and sweet, and I agree that it doesn’t necessarily taste super chocolatey.”
With these descriptions in mind, my friends and I were more than ready to move onto the Pop-Tarts!
Round 1: Appearance
They’re definitely not the prettiest pastries in the world, but at least these Dunkin Donuts Pop-Tarts look like the pictures on the box, right? These bad boys were a lil patchy and a lil crumbly, but I’m willing to attribute that to the hazards of shipping (I had to get these bad boys through Amazon Prime).
As my friend put it, “it’s like a regular Pop-Tart with prettier icing!” Whatever floats your boat?
Round 2: Smell
Originally, I wasn’t even going to make this a category, but WOW I was so surprised when I smelled these. The smell of the Vanilla Latte one smacked me in the face as soon as I opened the foil.
The chocolate one was a little more subtle, but still noticeable. Which is still a great thing, btw. I never smelled a coffee I didn’t like.
“This has a pretty good mocha-y, coffee smell!”
“This straight up smells like coffee ice cream.”
“How do they make them smell so much like coffee??”
(Fun fact: this last friend immediately started scanning the ingredients…biochem majors, am I right?)
Round 3: Taste
The real deal, what we all came here for: the taste test. I wish I could say that these knocked it out of the park, but the simple fact is there was no pop in these Dunkin Donuts Pop-Tarts. Some of my friends were happier than others with the flavor. As for me? I could barely taste the coffee. Guess I drink too much of the real stuff to be fooled with fake flavors…
“If I closed my eyes, and you told me I was just eating a regular chocolate Pop-Tart, I’d believe you.”
“This vanilla one just tastes like a sugar cookie…”
“How did they get it to smell like coffee more than it tasted like coffee?”
“If you don’t like coffee, you’d like these for sure.”
Conclusions?
Honestly, there was nothing wrong with these Dunkin Donuts Pop-Tarts—they just weren’t giving me or my friends the coffee buzz we were looking for. Maybe if we had changed some things around with the experiment, it’d be different.
For instance, toasters are super illegal in my dorm, so we were eating room temperature Pop-Tarts instead of having them hot n’ fresh out the kitchen. Maybe the warmth would have brought out the coffee flavor?
All in all, these Dunkin Donuts Pop-Tarts were a fun treat based on my love for the coffee chain. But, if you’re looking for that classic Dunkin Donuts flavor, you’re probably better off hitting the drive through.