National Espresso Day is a real holiday, it exists, it happened last week. And what better way to honor the beautiful subtlety and complexity of this iconic coffee beverage on its very big and not at all manufactured holiday than by [checks note] dumping 378 liters of milk on it? That’s what Dunkin’ Donuts did, who along with celebrity chef Nick DiGiovanni created the Guinness Book of Records-certified World’s Largest Iced Latte.
The stats on this friggin’ thing are insane. As reported by the Daily Star, the iced latte of record stands an astonishing 11 feet tall and is comprised of 3,200 shots of espresso and 378 liters of milk, all poured over a whopping 1,200 pounds of ice. In total, the beverage clocked in at a cool 1,044 liters (1,044.92 liters, to be exact), edging out the previous record of 1,000 liters.
The festivities all took place at Dunkin’s Massachusetts headquarters, with DiGiovanni—a Dunkin’Tern alum, the same people that brought you The Iced Boys, an iced coffee-themed boy band featuring members of the Backstreet Boys and *NYSNC—doing most of the pouring, standing on a ladder and double-fisting gallon milk jugs. “Attendees gathered to celebrate the occasion and enjoyed hand-crafted Iced Lattes served from a larger-than-life Dunkin’ cup,” the press release announcing the event stated, and I think this is maybe a good chance to reexamine what the phrase “hand-crafted” means or is supposed to mean.
The Daily Star notes that “the cold brew wasn’t wasted” as “it was shared with 300 staff members.” Questions aside about whether they used espresso or cold brew and how that impacts if this is even an iced latte at all, a quick numbers crunch has each attendee having to consume over 10 shots of espresso and over a liter of milk to down the massive beverage. So yeah, I would say they were all, in fact, pretty wasted. And while the brand’s tagline is “America runs on Dunkin’,” it’s safe to say that, thanks to the World’s Largest Iced Latte, Dunkin’ gave America[n HQ employees] the runs.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
