Those looking for a spiked Dunkin’ coffee fix will have to wait. It will be a few more weeks for a fresh batch of the coffee chain’s flavored malt beverage (FMB) to arrive on shelves. After initially releasing four coffee variants back in August, Mass. Bay Brewery, which collaborated with Dunkin’ on the series, held back a second batch following the detection of an off flavor, according to the company.
“We received some complaints from wholesalers that there were sour notes [in the first batch], related to the preservatives used in it,” said Megan Wilson, a spokesperson for Mass Bay Brewing Co., which is also the parent company of Harpoon Brewery, and other brands. “We stopped releasing more.”
A second batch of the Spiked Coffees, which had already been produced, were not released to the public.
Wilson notes that the brewery “felt comfortable with what we put into the market” but that it has since begun to tweak the brewing process.
Mass. Bay released the Dunkin’ Spiked Coffee in original, caramel, mocha, and vanilla flavors in 12oz cans, and with 6-percent alcohol by volume. The first two batches, Wilson says, were brewed at Harpoon.
She said about 6,000 of the Dunkin’ Spiked Coffee variants were sold.
Wilson said that the initial consumer response for both the Dunkin’ Spiked coffee and hard tea, which remains on shelves, was positive and robust and that the brewery had already been looking to “external partners” to keep up with demand. The new batches of the Dunkin’ Spiked coffee variants will be made at New York’s F.X. Matt Brewery, she said, and the drinks will be pasteurized before distribution. She expects them to be on shelves by December 2023.
“I think it’s a cleaner version of the product,” she says. “There is no more need for preservatives so [the new batches] are more like Dunkin’ coffee.”
The Dunkin’ Spiked Iced Teas, which come in flavors of slightly sweet, half & half, strawberry dragon fruit, and mango pineapple, are “doing fantastic” sales-wise, says Wilson.
“It’s in the top three FMBs in [Massachusetts],” she says.
“The plan was always to launch tea sooner and launch more if it,” she said. “Coffee is hard.”
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