Good for you:  To start your day, a cup of steaming Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and a donut.  (The coffee, not the donut!)

FANS OF CAFFEINE AT DUNKIN’ & STARBUCKS
NO LONGER NEED TO FEEL GUILTY
ABOUT A STRONG CUP OF JAVA

Popularity of high-octane coffee
pushes pastry to back burner
at Dunkin’ Donuts shops

EXPANSION PROSPECTS FOR COFFEE-SERVING
FRANCHISES KEEP GETTING BETTER & BETTER
 
By David Maril
 
Doctors, nutritionists, dieticians and fitness trainers have made careers out of removing many favorite foods and drink from our menus.

For years, newly released results from medical research would often show one delectable food increases your chances of getting cancer and another dish you crave raises blood pressure and could cause diabetes.

It almost seemed we were heading down a path of being restricted to drinking bottled spring water and eating nothing but broccoli, and beans dipped in olive oil.

These days, however, the tide seems to be turning and we are getting a break.

More and more, dietary and medical research is discovering some of the food and drink once considered hazardous to your health may actually be beneficial.

For example, we are now told that red wine, in moderate amounts, lowers blood pressure and could help in the battle against high cholesterol. And for people who like eggs, there’s the encouraging news that the benefits often outweigh the negatives heart specialists used to warn about.

The best news from my standpoint, however, is the reversal of fortune with coffee.

For years working on deadlines in the newspaper business, coffee was a necessary part of everyday life. Even though you’d keep hearing about the brew being too acidic for your stomach and raising blood pressure, it was something many of us are unable to give up.

I would suspect that quitting coffee is as difficult as smokers walking away from nicotine. A day without coffee serves as an invitation for a headache.

Starbucks’ sizes: They’re not Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large, like every- where else in the world. They’ve got highfalutin names like “Tall” and “Grande.”

And even if you dodge the ache near the brain, you don’t feel quite as sharp or in as positive a mood. In contrast to the stink of cigarette smoke, the aroma of a freshly brewed pot of coffee is uplifting to any room or office.

And now, we don’t have to even feel guilty about having a second cup.

Coffee, which it turns out is loaded with antioxidants, has a number of positive health benefits. And unless you go overboard and drink too much java each day, coffee is probably doing you more good than bad.

All of this helps explain the growth of fast-food chains that specialize in coffee, like Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks.

Even McDonalds, which built an empire on a foundation of fatty but tasty burgers for kids, has been focusing more on coffee options.

Forget the greasy-smelling egg and sausage sandwiches and all those cool, pastel summer drinks. If you want to know why they can’t build Dunkin’ Donuts outlets in the Northeast fast enough to meet the public demand, it comes down to one item — the traditional, steaming-hot coffee.

It’s certainly not the doughnuts. They aren’t bad but there are plenty of other franchises and local bakeries around that put Dunkin’ Donut doughnuts to shame.

Those rubbery, spongy muffins are not drawing customers in on their own either.

Sure, the bagels are passable. But you can find higher quality bagels in the frozen food department of your favorite supermarket.

Without high quality hot coffee, the parking lots and drive-in lanes at Dunkin’ Donuts would be empty.

Krispy Kreme learned this the hard way years ago trying to invade Dunkin’ Donut territory without premium coffee.

THE STANDARD COFFEE IS THE STRENGTH

All the new products Dunkin’ keeps adding, like specially flavored mocha coffee and lattes during holidays, may spread the overall appeal to an even  wider audience. However, the standard coffee, without any gimmicks, is the strength that the other businesses have a hard-time matching.

Early in the franchise history, the founders discovered the appeal of good,   strong coffee and the high profit margin of mixing coffee beans with hot water.

It is surprising the number of eateries that fail to recognize the power of a potent cup of coffee.

How many times have you gone to an expensive, high quality restaurant and had a gourmet meal ruined by a bad cup of coffee? Conversely, aren’t there plenty of occasions where finishing up with a great cup of coffee will reduce some of the disappointment from a bad meal?

People on the East coast  prefer strong coffee with enough caffeine to sharpen the senses even on the earliest and foggiest of mornings.

We’ve all heard, from time to time, a person at work who doesn’t usually buy coffee, announce: “I’m going down to Dunkin’ to get a coffee. This is going to be a tough day and I really need a shot of rocket fuel.”?

When you are driving on a trip, tired, and want a cup of coffee, you go out of your way to find a Dunkin’ Donuts. You know the restrooms will be clean, the counter service quick, and the coffee strong and fresh.

IT’S NOT GOURMET COFFEE

However, let’s be clear. It’s not gourmet coffee.

If you want some exotic blend from another continent, grind your own coffee beans or go to Starbucks and deal with the grandiose terminology necessary for ordering their products.

Starbucks is Dunkin’ Donuts’ biggest competition in the fast-food coffee wars.

Reportedly, the two franchises control around 60 percent of the market for selling cups of coffee. Both have expanded internationally and you can even purchase bags of their coffee, whole bean and ground, in grocery stores.

Starbucks is more of an upscale social experience. Some Starbuck customers will spend an hour or so, sipping their brew with the fancy names and contemplating their computerized Apple worlds.

Starbuck customers sound as if they are reciting the names of rare, exotic delicacies with fancy, frilly titles when they order their drinks and food.

I enjoy mocking the phoniness of the terminology and labeling Starbucks promotions by emphasizing when I order that I want a “large” size cup of coffee and have no idea what they are talking about with “Tall” and “Grande.”

Most Dunkin’ Donuts patrons buy their coffee and immediately hit the road.

In the iconic Woody Allen film “Sleeper” (1973) a health food store owner from the 1970s is transported into a future world where foods like cheeseburgers, ice cream, donuts and cheesecake are good for you — and so-called “health foods” are not.  Coffee and caffeine have been on the “not good for you” food list since way before that time; also red wine and chocolate (including dark chocolate), which have been determined to offer antioxidant benefits to health.  Who knew a daily cup of coffee would also turn out to be beneficial?

Dunkin’ did an experiment with silly coffee nicknames, like the Great One,  which was an insult to Jackie Gleason and Wayne Gretzky.  But the term “extra large,” which is more in tune with the unpretentious atmosphere in a Dunkin’ Donuts, has returned.

What you are guaranteed at Dunkin’ Donuts is a steaming cup of fresh coffee with the same taste. The glass pots get emptied quickly and the coffee isn’t turning to mud.

Personally, in the last 25 years of patronizing Dunkin’ Donuts all over Maryland and New England, I’ve had just one bad cup, where the coffee   proportions were off.

Amazingly enough, the best for franchises like Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks, is yet to come.  The more studies that come out indicating that drinking coffee may lower the risk of diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and colon cancer, will only help sell more coffee.

The coffee lines will only be getting longer if this beverage that puts people in a better mood is also proven to be a boost to your health.

Is it too much to hope that some day medical researchers will discover that cheeseburgers are a cure for obesity and ice cream sodas ward off the flu?
 
davidmaril@voiceofbaltimore.org
 
“Inside Pitch” is a weekly opinion column written for Voice of Baltimore by David Maril.
 
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