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Dunkin’ to roll out seasonal menu items for HalloweenDunkin’ to roll out seasonal menu items for Halloween

A purple ‘Potion Macchiato’ and a similarly colored Spider Donut will be available starting Oct. 16

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

October 1, 2024

2 Min Read
dunkin spider donut
The Spider Donut is purple this yearCourtesy of Dunkin'

Dunkin’ is rolling out special treats and costumes for Halloween season, including a seasonal coffee drink and a new version of its Spider Donut.

Starting Oct. 16, the chain of more than 13,000 locations worldwide will be offering North American customers a Potion Macchiato, which is made with espresso, milk, and purple marshmallow ube flavor to give the drink a seasonally appropriate hue. Prices will vary by size and location but a medium hot macchiato is generally around $5.09 and an iced one is around $5.39.

To match that color scheme, this season’s Spider Donut, which in past years has been a yeast doughnut with orange icing and a chocolate glazed Munchkins doughnut hole decorated to resemble a spider — with white icing for eyes and chocolate legs — has purple icing instead. It will be around $1.99, although as with all of its items, Dunkin’s pricing is set by individual franchisees.

The chain is also dressing up its classic vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry frosted doughnuts with chocolate and orange sprinkles for around $1.99.

Additionally, the chain, which is owned by Atlanta-based Inspire Brands, is offering  a Munchkins Bucket and clothing and other merch including DunKings Tracksuits.

Football fans likely saw the tracksuits during a Super Bowl commercial featuring football legend Tom Brady and actor and Dunkin’ spokesman Ben Affleck, among others, in a fictional band called the DunKings.

Related:Dunkin’ introduces new LTO menu items during Super Bowl commercial with Ben Affleck and Tom Brady

Dunkin’ said the tracksuits sold out “in record time” when they were offered in January. They’re now back at shopdunkin.com for $60 each for the jacket and pants, for a total of $120 for the outfit. A kid-sized DunKids version is $80, and a DunKings Halloween costume comprised of a long-sleeve jersey, bucket hat, and sunglasses, is $44.99.

A DunKings branded bucket hat and tumbler are $40 each and a Spider Donut inflatable, in the classic orange color, is $55.

The seasonal Munchkins Bucket is purple this year, and decorated with a Halloween motif. It’s large enough to hold 50 doughnut holes, which sell for $13.99 on the chain’s catering menu.

Those items round out Dunkin’s seasonal lineup of apple cider, pumpkin, maple, and almond coffees and treats that were launched in late August.

“At Dunkin’, we love keeping guests fueled through every season, and Halloween is no exception. With beloved treats like our Spider Donut and new menu items like the Potion Macchiato, we’re excited to give customers a delicious way to celebrate the spooky season,” Dunkin’ vice president of category management Beth Turenne said in a statement. “Whether it’s picking up a Munchkins Bucket for trick-or-treating or sharing festive donuts with friends and family, we’ve got everything needed to make Halloween a little sweeter.”  

Related:Dunkin’ launches ad campaign to promote iced beverages

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

 

 

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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