How many shots of espresso in a large macchiato dunkin

Dunkin’ has some of my favorite coffee on the planet, in my opinion.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m quite the coffee snob. Whenever I travel, I like to try as many of the local coffee spots as I can. A good cup of coffee can really elevate any experience.

And I’m “that guy” that only orders his coffee black to really enjoy all the nuances of the cup.

All of that being said, Dunkin’ is still some of the best (and most consistent) coffee around, especially when it comes to cold brew.

Whenever it’s time for a road trip, I always make sure I’m accompanied by a nice big cup of Dunkin’ cold brew. Maybe it’s my East Coast bias (I grew up in New York), but I stand by it.

If you’re looking to order Dunkin, you might be wondering just how much caffeine is in Dunkin coffee. Well, then you’re in the right place!

My hope is that someday coffee shops will post their caffeine content the same way many fast food chains now post up all of their calories. While I don’t concern myself too much with the caffeine content, I know that there are many people who simply can’t handle too much caffeine or simply want to limit it.

So, if you’re curious about Dunkin coffee caffeine, read on!

Dunkin Original Blend vs Midnight Blend

Dunkin has two different coffee roasts that you can order: Original Blend and Midnight.

The standard order will always use the original blend, which is a medium roast coffee that we all know and love.

The Midnight blend is Dunkin’s dark roast coffee, which has a much richer flavor.

Unfortunately, the Dunkin website only gives us the caffeine content for the original blend coffee, so we need to do a little investigative work to figure out if the Midnight blend has more or less caffeine.

To give us some answers, we’re going to turn to Starbucks.

At Starbucks, a 16oz medium roast coffee (Pike Place) contains 310mg of caffeine, while the same size dark roast coffee contains 260mg of caffeine.

While this doesn’t make it an exact science, this means that we can estimate a medium roast coffee will contain roughly 20% more caffeine than a dark roast.

Based on the caffeine content of Dunkin coffee, we can estimate the following for the Midnight blend:

Small: 144mg

Medium: 168mg

Large: 216mg

XL: 264mg

Most people assume that dark roast has more caffeine, but as you can see, that’s not the case! According to Kicking Horse Coffee, light-roasted coffee is denser than dark-roasted coffee, so when you scoop it out, you’re actually getting more coffee by volume, resulting in more caffeine.

If you measure by weight, all coffee will have very similar caffeine content. But when you measure by volume, the lighter the roast, the higher the caffeine.

What’s the strongest coffee at Dunkin Donuts?

We’ll dive into the full menu below, but let’s first identify the coffee at Dunkin with the most caffeine.

The highest caffeinated drink at Dunkin Donuts is a large iced coffee.

A large iced coffee from Dunkin contains nearly 400mg of caffeine, making it the highest caffeine drink on the menu.

In many cases, cold brew is stronger than iced coffee, but that does not seem to be the case here. Although, a Dunkin’ cold brew is very similar in overall caffeine, with a large containing 347mg.

If you’re looking for a small drink with the most caffeine, it’s going to be either an Americano or Macchiato.

A small of either of these drinks (hot or cold) contains 237mg of caffeine, a medium contains 284mg of caffeine, and a large contains 371mg of caffeine.

For comparison, a small hot coffee at Dunkin contains 180mg of caffeine, so the Americano contains about 25% more caffeine!

Americanos and Macchiatos are espresso-based drinks, and a small one contains two shots of espresso, resulting in higher amounts of caffeine than other small drinks.

What’s the Dunkin drink with the least caffeine?

If you want to limit your caffeine intake, but you still want coffee, you’ll want to stick with decaf coffee.

A decaf coffee at Dunkin’ does contain small amounts of caffeine, but the amounts are very minimal. A small decaf Dunkin coffee contains only 7mg of caffeine, and an XL decaf coffee still only contains 18mg of caffeine.

This makes decaf coffee a great option for anyone trying to keep their caffeine consumption low.

If you’re searching for a non-coffee drink, decaf tea contains 0mg of caffeine, but it may not be the most “exciting” choice.

For something a little more flavorful than plain tea, you can go with a hot chocolate or Coolatta. Small hot chocolate contains only 9mg of caffeine, and the Coolatta drinks do not have any caffeine at all!

Simple hacks to increase the caffeine in any Dunkin’ coffee

Look, life can be exhausting sometimes. As a new parent, I know what it feels like to be running on very little sleep, and sometimes more caffeine is exactly what you need.

If you want to bump the caffeine content up in any Dunkin’ drink, here are two simple tricks:

Add a shot of espresso to any drink

Dunkin can add a shot of espresso to any coffee order, so if you want to super charge your coffee, ask for a shot of espresso! Doing this will add 118mg of caffeine to any drink.

Dunkin’ used to sell “Extra Charged Coffee,” which is exactly what I’m describing here, but it is not currently available on the menu. Instead, you can make it yourself by adding a shot to your coffee!

Ask for less ice in your iced coffee

This is my favorite trick to not only bump up the caffeine content of iced coffee but also get more bang for your buck.

When you order an iced coffee or cold brew, ask for “less ice.”

By getting less ice in your cup, you’ll be getting more coffee, which will result in more caffeine!

If you feel strange asking for less ice, trust me when I say I do it every single time and it’s never an issue. But if you truly feel weird about it, order through the Dunkin’ app, because it’s actually on option on there!

Looking for the caffeine amount in your favorite Dunkin’ coffee? Look no further!

At Dunkin’, there are two main types of drinks: coffee and espresso drinks.

For the most part, espresso-based drinks will contain more caffeine because they contain multiple shots of espresso.

Whether you order cold or hot drinks, the caffeine content will mostly remain the same. If you order a medium hot latte and a medium iced latte, the iced latte will actually be a larger size. However, since it contains ice, you’re getting roughly the same amount of liquid, resulting in the same amount of caffeine.

The exception to this rule is cold brew coffee. You’ll see in this guide that coffee, iced coffee, and cold brew all contain different amounts of caffeine.

Why is this? Well, that’s because iced coffee and cold brew are completely different drinks! Cold brew coffee is my favorite drink on the planet, so I wrote up an entire post to break down the differences between iced coffee vs cold brew.

One final note: none of these caffeine amounts are going to be exact, and there are a lot of factors than will effect the final caffeine content. For example, if you add dairy & flavor shots to your drink, that is going to leave less room for coffee, resulting in lower caffeine.

However, this guide is going to be a very close approximation, so it should definitely help!

Small Dunkin drinks ranked by caffeine

Coolatta: 0mg

Decaf Tea: 0mg

Frozen Chocolate: <5mg

Decaf Coffee: 7mg

Hot Chocolate: 9mg

Iced Tea: 42mg

Refresher: 66mg

Green Tea: 70mg

Chai Latte: 70mg

Matcha Latte: 80mg

Black Tea: 90mg

Espresso Shot: 118mg

Cappuccino: 118mg

Latte: 118mg

Espresso Hot Chocolate: 127mg

Cold Brew: 174mg

Hot Coffee: 180mg

Iced Coffee: 198mg

Americano: 237mg

Macchiato: 237

Medium Dunkin drinks ranked by caffeine

Coolatta: 0mg

Decaf Tea: 0mg

Frozen Chocolate: 6mg

Decaf Coffee: 10mg

Hot Chocolate: 13mg

Iced Tea: 63mg

Green Tea: 70mg

Refresher: 99mg

Black Tea: 90mg

Chai Latte: 105mg

Matcha Latte: 120mg

Espresso Hot Chocolate: 131mg

Cappuccino: 166mg

Latte: 166mg

Hot Coffee: 210mg

Espresso Double: 237mg

Cold Brew: 260mg

Americano: 284mg

Macchiato: 284mg

Iced Coffee: 297mg

Large Dunkin drinks ranked by caffeine

Coolatta: 0mg

Decaf Tea: 0mg

Frozen Chocolate: 8mg

Decaf Coffee: 15mg

Hot Chocolate: 18mg

Iced Tea: 84mg

Refresher: 132mg

Espresso Hot Chocolate: 136mg

Green Tea: 140mg

Chai Latte: 140mg

Black Tea: 180mg

Matcha Latte: 200mg

Cappuccino: 252mg

Latte: 252mg

Hot Coffee: 270mg

Cold Brew: 347mg

Espresso Triple: 354mg

Americano: 371mg

Macchiato: 371mg

Iced Coffee: 396mg

How much caffeine is in nitro cold brew?

Nitro may just be my favorite coffee drink out there, but it’s tough to find at Dunkin.

Not all Dunkin’ locations sell nitro cold brew, but if you come across it, I highly recommend it!

The problem is that Dunkin’ does not provide the caffeine content, so we have to do our best to estimate.

When you order a Nitro Cold Brew, you’ll only be able to order it as a small instead of a medium. While that may feel like you’re getting ripped off, it’s because nitro is served without ice.

The nitrogen keeps the coffee super cold and smooth, and you end up getting the same amount of liquid in a smaller cup since there is no ice taking up space.

Dunkin’ doesn’t list the exact caffeine amount for Nitro, but I estimate that it’s the same amount of coffee as the cold brew, just in a smaller cup. Since there’s no ice, you’re roughly getting the same amount of cold brew as a medium.

In this case, it’s estimated that nitro cold brew from Dunkin’ contains roughly 260mg of caffeine.

How does Dunkin coffee compare to Starbucks?

If you’re asking me personally, there’s no comparison: Dunkin’ is far superior.

But if you’re asking me how the caffeine content stacks up, I’ve got just the handy graphic for ya. And if you want a deeper dive, I have a full post breaking down Dunkin vs Starbucks.

This isn’t the full menu, but it should cover most of the popular items between Dunkin’ and Starbucks! Here are a few notes for you to help even more…

1. The caffeine counts aren’t exact. There are lots of variables involved to determine the amount of caffeine, and each batch of coffee can end up being slightly different, so consider these close estimates. One day the coffee your order at Starbucks may just be stronger, having a bit more caffeine, so keep that in mind.

2. I checked each drink about 10 times based on the respective menus available online. Unfortunately, I can’t answer the questions like “why does Dunkin iced coffee have so much more caffeine than Starbucks?” I did my best with the information I could find online, but still couldn’t find all the answers. Rest assured, the caffeine content is pulled directly from the Dunkin’ and Starbucks websites!

3. The cup sizes between Dunkin and Starbucks are also slightly different. For example, a Starbucks Tall is 12oz and a Grande is 16oz, while a Dunkin small is 10z with a medium being 14oz. The amounts are slightly different, but I stuck with the small/medium/large system for consistency. You’ll notice that the 2oz difference in drinks doesn’t really translate to more or less caffeine, though.

4. The Starbucks caffeine levels for some drinks (like a cappuccino) seem to be the same for Grande & Venti, whereas Dunkin caffeine increases. That leads me to believe that with Starbucks, you’re getting more of the other stuff in those drinks, and not more coffee. I checked in with someone who used to work at Starbucks and they confirmed that you indeed do not get more espresso when you order the large at Starbucks, so you might be better off sticking to the Grande in that case (especially if calories are a concern).

5. Starbucks does have different coffee roasts available as well: a blonde roast has slightly more caffeine, and a dark roast has slightly less.