Does Dunkin' Make Its Donuts In Store?

When you're enjoying that delicious chocolate-frosted or jelly donut from your local Dunkin' location, do you ever think about where it came from? If so, you're not alone. With the many shortcuts found at most fast food joints, it's reasonable to wonder whether Dunkin' is actually making its baked goods in-house. But it turns out the answer is a little more complicated.

Just about all Dunkin' restaurants are franchises, meaning they're owned by individual businesspeople who have a good deal of latitude over how they operate. Among the choices they can make are three distinct options for where to get their donuts and other baked goods. In a TikTok, franchisee Amir Mohamed described them, starting with the most obvious option: baking in-store.

Alternatively, stores or franchisees operating in the same area can build or contract with a central commercial kitchen, often called a CML (central manufacturing location). These facilities can take advantage of the financial and efficiency benefits of making larger batches of donuts on specialized equipment, with fresh products delivered to individual Dunkin' stores every morning.

The final option is known as JBOD ("just baked on demand"), which Mohamed refers to as "disgusting frozen donuts." This may reflect some of his opinion (as a supporter of the in-house or CML option), but the donuts are, in fact, partially baked and frozen. They're then thawed and finished in the store ovens when needed. 

@amirrors_world

The best donuts are glazed and blueberry at 4am when theyre fresh! No discussion haha! #dunkin #franchise #franchisee #dunkindonuts #business #la #donuts #losangeles

♬ original sound – Amir Mohamed 🇪🇬

This news may be surprising to older Dunkin' fans. For most of the company's more-than-seven-decade history, donuts were baked on-location at every Dunkin'. This only began to change in the last 25 years as part of modernizations that also included dropping the "Donuts" from the company's name in branding.

Although some might prefer to patronize Dunkin' locations with fresh or CML donuts over their JBOD counterparts, there's, unfortunately, no easy way to know which is which. In another video, Mohamed suggests the best solution is to just go into your local store and ask.