National Espresso Day is a real holiday, it exists, it took place last week. What better way to honor the handsome subtlety and complexity of this iconic coffee drink during its very enormous and not at all manufactured celebration than by [checks note] poured 378 liters of milk on him? That’s it Dunkin’ Donuts did, who, along with celebrity chef Nick DiGiovanni, created the world’s largest Guinness Book of Records-certified iced latte.
The statistics on this damn thing are crazy. As reported by the portal Day StarThe record iced latte is an astonishing 3.5 meters high and consists of 3,200 shots of espresso and 378 liters of milk, all poured over a whopping 500 kilograms of ice. In total, the drink collected 1,044 liters (1,044.92 liters to be exact), beating the previous record of 1,000 liters.
The entire ceremony took place at Dunkin’s headquarters in Massachusetts, and DiGiovanni – a Dunkin’Tern alumnus, the same people who brought us The Iced Boys, an iced coffee-themed boy band that includes members of the Backstreet Boys and *NYSNC – did most of the festivities pouring, standing on a ladder and two-liter milk jugs. “Attendees gathered to celebrate the occasion and enjoyed handmade iced lattes served from an oversized Dunkin’ cup,” the press release announcing the event stated, and I think this might be a good opportunity to revisit what the phrase “handmade” means or is supposed to mean.
The Daily Star notes that “the icy brew was not wasted” as it was “served to 300 workers.” Aside from questions about whether they used espresso or icy brew and how that affects whether it’s an iced latte at all, just a quick rundown of the numbers shows that each participant needs to drink over 10 shots of espresso and over a liter of milk to drink a huge drink . So yeah, I’d say they were all pretty wasted actually. And although the brand’s slogan is “America runs on Dunkin’,” it’s safe and sound to say that with the world’s largest iced latte, Dunkin’ has given America[n HQ employees] runs.
