Every New Item On Dunkin's Spring Menu, Ranked

Dunkin' has just dropped a full Spring menu of new limited-time items, along with a whole new beverage category, and it's packed with the promise of high energy and fresh flavors. Not only does Dunkin' appear to be taking a page from Taco Bell's massive menu drop promotional strategy, but it also seems to be embracing Latinx cuisine, as many other restaurants are. Here's everything new at Dunkin' this season, and how they rank, from worst to best.

If anyone is excited about Dunkin's two new sparkling energy drinks, it's Dunkin'. Unfortunately, a few sips of the SPARKD' Energy Peach Sunshine is enough to tell me that I won't be ordering it again. The sparkling beverage features a combination of lychee and peach flavors, plus it contains vitamins, minerals, and a burst of energy from the caffeine content.

A small SPARKD' contains 18 grams of sugar and 96 mg of caffeine. Overall, the peach flavor is not strong, and all the ice in combination with the sparkling water makes the drink end up tasting like a diluted LaCroix. At our nearest Dunkin' location, a small Peach Sunshine cost $3.59.

Much like its twin flame, the SPARKD' Energy Berry Burst flavor is lackluster at best. The drink manages to earn itself one place higher in the rankings than its counterpart simply because the berry flavor is more present than the peach, and this helped it taste a little less watery.

The Berry Burst has strawberry and raspberry flavors and contains the same combination of sparkling water, minerals, vitamins, and caffeine as the other SPARKD' Energy drink on the menu. A small order of the Berry Burst also has 18 grams of sugar and 96 mg of caffeine. The drink cost $3.59 at a Dunkin' in downtown Chicago.

I had some fairly high hopes for the new coffee drinks coming to Dunkin's Spring menu, but was left feeling underwhelmed. The Churro Signature Latte is described as "smooth espresso with a sweet churro flavor, topped with whipped cream, caramel drizzle and a dusting of cinnamon sugar." Whether it came with the whipped cream or caramel drizzle when I ordered it is unclear; by the time I arrived at the office just around the corner, this is what it looked like.

I ordered the drink hot, but it's available iced as well. Perhaps an iced version would have helped distinguish this flavor from the average cup of sweet coffee, but unfortunately the hot version just tastes like any other coffee I've ordered from Dunkin'. The drink is a bit sweeter than most, but that's pretty much it—sweetness is the standout flavor. According to the Dunkin' app, a small order of the drink contains whole milk, two pumps of churro syrup swirl, whipped cream, cinnamon sugar, and a caramel drizzle. This drink cost $4.29 for a small in downtown Chicago.

As someone who bakes banana bread at home (with chocolate chips in it), I have a pretty solid sense of what this slice should taste like. Dunkin's Banana Chocolate Chip Bread delivers what it should... for the most part. The bread is thankfully moist, not dry, and tastes very strongly of bananas. The only downside is that the chocolate chips are virtually undetectable.

When looking at the slice of banana bread, you can clearly see the chocolate chip bits throughout. But when you take a bite, it's as if the chips disappear, and I don't mean that in a "melt in your mouth" kind of way. The chocolate chips seem like they're there for show and not for flavor; picking them out of the bread and placing them on your tongue, you still can't really taste them. Outside of that, I had no complaints. The slice cost $3.29 in downtown Chicago and is a respectable size for a breakfast treat. The fact that it comes shrink-wrapped for on-the-go eating could be an added convenience for some customers.

As previously mentioned, Dunkin's Spring coffee lineup is disappointing not because it doesn't taste good, but because it just doesn't distinguish itself. I like my coffee fairly sweet, but not like a toothache. The Cinnamon Vanilla Coffee hits that target, but also tastes like any other simple vanilla coffee I could order (and have ordered) at Dunkin'.

The drink, per the app, contains original blend coffee, two creams, two pumps of vanilla syrup, and two pumps of churro syrup. The two coffees on this menu are essentially fraternal twins, but this one just happens to be a little more tolerable because it lacks the extra sweetness from the whipped cream and caramel drizzle. A small order of Cinnamon Vanilla Coffee cost $2.59 in downtown Chicago.

I can see where Dunkin' was trying to go with its Churro Donut, but the pastry falls short of fully embodying what it's meant to. As a doughnut, this cruller-esque pastry has a perfect cake texture and a respectable sprinkling of cinnamon sugar. But because it's a churro doughnut, I was expecting the crimped parts of the exterior to be crispy, crunchy, and caked in cinnamon sugar—and the doughnut was too soft and sparsely coated to be mistaken for a true churro. I would order this doughnut any day, but not because it's a good churro dupe. It cost $1.59 in downtown Chicago.

This Breakfast Empanada is a surprise winner among Dunkin's new Spring menu items. The empanada contains scrambled egg, sausage, and cheddar cheese inside a flaky crust. The size is perfectly satisfying for a breakfast item, and the sausage has a heavily seasoned, savory flavor almost comparable to Italian sausage. The combination is so simple and enjoyable it makes me wonder if/when Dunkin' will roll out other empanada varieties. (Maybe a chorizo version, like its wrap?) The empanada cost $4.29 in Chicago.

The only fault with the empanada comes down to the visuals: The crimped edge, which any good empanada should have (and which even Taco Bell managed to pull off), is hardly crimped at all. Plus, the sausage, though the tastiest part, looked gray and unappetizing mixed into the scrambled egg and cheese. Still, these small flaws only prove that, especially in the world of fast food, you don't have to be pretty to be a winner.