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Last year, dozens of coffee shops decided to jump in on a bizarre trend: serving coffee in literal buckets. Inspired by TikTok, cafes around the U.S. were handing out XXL iced lattes and other drinks in plastic buckets—and they were very popular.
And now, we’re sorry to say, the trend is back and bigger than ever.
For a limited time, New England-based chain Dunkin’ is now offering a 48-ounce bucket for its iced drinks, one-upping the original bucket drink trend (most cafes, when jumping on this ridiculous trend last year, were serving drinks in tiny 32-ounce buckets). That’s the same size as four tall-sized drinks at Starbucks and over a third of a gallon.
Dunkin’s Beverage Bucket is currently being tested at select New England locations, according to Victor Mather of the New York Times. The company isn’t advertising this new sizing option, so most information comes from social media sleuths. Employees at two locations in New Hampshire confirmed to Mather that they were selling the drink, and said they’d already sold out of buckets.
You can check online for a picture of the buckets. Some drinks contain up to 470 mg of caffeine (about the same as five 8-ounce cups of coffee).
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends a daily caffeine limit of 400mg for an adult. To put the Dunkin’ bucket into perspective, Panera Bread’s Charged Lemonade, the controversial drink pulled from its menu in 2024 after it was linked to several deaths, contained 390mg of caffeine.
Read the full story on the bucket o’ latte from the New York Times here or via the Seattle Times here.
Photo by nameless 3791 on Unsplash
