Dunkin’ Donuts recently announced that they’re testing out “Beverage Buckets” at certain locations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Yes, 48 oz. of your favorite iced beverage at Dunkin’ Donuts are possibly coming to a location near you. However, between the immense amount of plastic, money and sugar that is (literally) being poured into this creation, is it really worth the novelty?
From a health standpoint, it needs to be noted that this is absolutely ridiculous. According to the American Heart Association, the suggested calorie intake is around 2,000 per day and the suggested sugar intake is around 30 grams per day. For iced drinks at Dunkin’ Donuts, Large is the biggest size, which is 32 ounces.
An Iced Caramel Latte, one of their most popular iced drinks, is 460 calories and about 71 grams of sugar. That is already passing the limit exponentially for your daily sugars, and you’ve also had about a quarter of your daily calorie intake in just your morning “coffee.” A 48 oz. bucket is the same thing as a small (16 oz.) and large (32 oz.), which means that an iced caramel latte beverage bucket would be around 760 calories and around 111 grams of sugar. Even if you aren’t someone who tracks calories, you should think about your health before you order one of these.
We all know Dunkin’ Donuts is no stranger to consumerism. The countless collaborations such as Charli D’Amelio, Sabrina Carpenter, Ice Spice and most recently, Megan Thee Stallion, the munchkin tins that are only used once, the “left hand glove” for iced drinks and now all the protein drinks. The “Beverage Bucket” is currently priced at $9-$12, depending on the drink. This isn’t too much of a price increase considering that prices have certainly gone up.
However, as we’ve seen with Starbucks’ recent “Teddy Bear Cups,” it’s been proven that fads such as these only last about a couple days before ending up in thrift stores and landfills. You see the same thing with movie theater popcorn buckets. People will pay so much just for the novelty of an item or for a trend, all just to not even finish the whole thing and have the item collect dust. Do we really need more plastic in the world right now?
At the end of the day, you can buy or consume whatever you want. It’s really easy to get swept up in trends like this because we are now obsessed with the idea of “Bigger is Better.” I feel like we no longer understand what an actual portion of food or drink is. It is not normal to be drinking all of your daily sugars and calories for the day, and carrying around a literal bucket to drink out of is insane. When I first saw this, I thought that it was a joke or a prank or something, but it’s unfortunately real. Just like many people, I enjoy watching “mukbangs,” but to a certain extent, it gets out of hand, and I do not believe that we should normalize eating and drinking habits such as these.
