Peppermint and chocolate make a magical team. Their combination is my most treasured flavor of the holiday season and one of my favorites year-round. Nothing makes me feel like everything is as right with the world as peppermint and chocolate when they’re doing their thing.
After taking a year off, Dunkin’ has brought back their peppermint mocha with a new name: The Merry Mocha Mint Signature Latte. It’s a peppermint mocha topped with whipped cream and chocolate syrup, dusted with hot cocoa powder. It’s available hot or iced, and since it was nearly 90 degrees when I ordered it, I opted for the iced version.
Being that it’s been a couple of years since I’ve had Dunkin’s peppermint mocha, I couldn’t remember if it always came with a sprinkle of hot cocoa powder on the whipped cream. This sounded really promising to me, but, unfortunately, the one I received had such little powder that it didn’t impact the taste of the whipped cream in any noticeable way.
The chocolate in the latte was decadent, with a sweetness level was on par with semi-sweet chocolate. The syrup on top tasted exactly as I hoped it would. It was just as rich as the what’s in the drink and didn’t have that typical synthetic chocolate syrup flavor.
The peppermint level was perfectly balanced. It danced around with the chocolate and delicately enhanced the drink. It was strong enough to be prominent, but it didn’t feel like I had ravenously sucked down an entire tin of Altoids.
All this positivity aside, I was disappointed for one very important reason: I could not taste any form of coffee in the latte at all. The drink tasted like a delicious minty chocolate milk on ice, but not any type of legitimate mocha or latte.
I can’t be certain if the Merry Mocha Mint Signature Latte was supposed to taste like this or if I got a dud. Judging by the simple discrepancy between the cocoa powder on my drink and the promo photographs, I’m leaning towards the latter.
This time around, Dunkin’ failed to give me the full “warm and fuzzy” experience that I was craving. Taking a year off from the peppermint mocha has clearly made them a little rusty.
Purchased Price: $4.29
Size: Medium
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 340 calories, 5 grams of fat, 3.5 grams of saturated fat, 20 milligrams of cholesterol, 190 milligrams of sodium, 62 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 56 grams of sugar, and 11 grams of protein.
Isn’t that the point of all these overly flavored and sweetened theme drinks? That they don’t taste like coffee at all.
Metro-Phoenix area? I can see the trunk of a Palo Verde, creosote bush and what looks like could be Camelback Mountain in the background.
Hey, another Arizonan! Good eye, but it’s actually Oro Valley.
Former barista here! Since they only do 1.5 shot of espresso in medium, you would want another shot since their medium is a Venti at Starbucks. That way you wouldn’t taste the syrups so much.