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Dunkin’ hires Martha Stewart again to promote its new merchDunkin’ hires Martha Stewart again to promote its new merch

The lifestyle celebrity has a new drink recipe to promote the restaurant chain’s shaker and glasses

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

November 30, 2023

1 Min Read
martha stewart
Martha Stewart released a video on Thursday providing a recipe for the Dunkintini, a version of one of the trendiest cocktails at the moment, the Espresso Martini, made with Dunkin’ espresso, vodka, and coffee liqueur.Dia Dipasupil / Staff / Getty Images Entertainment

Martha Stewart is teaming up with Dunkin’ again, this time to promote the coffee-and-doughnut concept’s new Martini shaker and glasses, which will be available at the chain’s merchandising web site, ShopDunkin.com, starting Dec. 1, except for members of the chain’s Dunkin’ Rewards loyalty program, who will have access a day early.

The lifestyle-oriented celebrity released a video on Thursday providing a recipe for the Dunkintini, a version of one of the trendiest cocktails at the moment, the Espresso Martini, made with Dunkin’ espresso, vodka, and coffee liqueur.

The Martini Shaker is $25 and the glasses are $20 apiece.

dunkin martini.png

Menu research firm Datassential reported that Espresso Martinis are now on 5% of menus nationwide, an increase of 164% over the past four years as of July 2023.

Stewart last partnered with Dunkin’ in August, with a video in which she provided etiquette advice for how to shake iced beverages in different social settings.

Iced coffee is a rapidly growing segment and now makes up the bulk of sales at many coffeehouse chains. Although Dunkin’, which is a privately held subsidiary of Atlanta- based Inspire Brands, has not released figures of what percentage of its beverage sales are iced, public companies including Starbucks and Dutch Bros. have reported that iced beverages make up 75% and 90% of sales, respectively.

 Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

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About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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