Taking a shot

Dunkin' Donuts is placing a big bet on flavored coffees.

The chain has always offered French vanilla and hazelnut coffees, but over the last couple of weeks it has begun installing a piece of equipment at its 4,584 US outlets that lets workers cost-effectively offer regular and decaffeinated hot and twice-brewed iced coffee in seven additional flavors: blueberry, raspberry, marshmallow, caramel, toasted almond, cinnamon, and coconut.

The flavor expansion, due to be phased in at all of the chain's outlets by December and backed by an advertising campaign, runs counter to current coffee thinking. Flavored coffees peaked in popularity in the mid-1990s, and many coffee snobs say they are an abomination. Seattle coffee behemoth Starbucks Corp., for example, thinks flavorings disrupt the ''integrity" of a cup of coffee.

But Ted Lingle, executive director of trade group Specialty Coffee Association of America, said he thinks Dunkin' Donuts may be on to something. He said flavored coffees and cold coffee drinks are a great way to expand market share by attracting customers who normally would never think of buying a cup of coffee.

''Coffee is an acquired taste for most people," Lingle said. ''A flavored coffee is a good entry-level drink."

Dunkin' Brands Inc., a Canton unit of Allied Domecq PLC that is likely to be spun off when Allied is purchased by Pernod Ricard SA and Fortune Brands Inc., spent two years developing and testing its coffee-flavoring process.

Dunkin' Donuts worked with two outside vendors to design and manufacture its flavor-shot machine, which dispenses flavor extracts in calibrated amounts into various coffee drinks. The flavor extracts add no calories and have a very different texture from the sugary syrups used in many coffee drinks, Dunkin' Donuts officials said.

Previously, Dunkin' Donuts made its French vanilla and hazelnut coffees by using beans treated with liquid flavor extract after being roasted. The flavored-bean approach required Dunkin' Donuts to grind and brew each type of flavored coffee separately. Store officials say the process was time consuming, labor intensive, and severely limited how many flavors and types of drinks could be offered. Dunkin' Donuts, for example, had not offered decaffeinated versions of its flavored drinks.

The new flavor-delivery system dispenses with separate grinding and brewing. Each store brews regular, decaffeinated, and iced coffee and then adds a flavor or a combination of flavors using the flavor-shot machine.

Store officials press buttons on the machine to identify what kind of coffee is being purchased and what flavor or flavor combination is desired.

Any type of flavor combination is possible, but two, toasted almond/coconut and marshmallow/caramel, are preprogrammed on the machine.

Catherine Saar, director of brand marketing for Dunkin' Donuts, said the flavor-shot machine makes it possible for the chain to offer customers tremendous choice without sacrificing quality.

''If you had to brew a cup of coffee for all these different flavors, it would be a nightmare," she said. ''All of a sudden, the world is your oyster."

Dunkin' Donuts would not allow The Boston Globe to take a picture of the flavor-shot machine for ''competitive reasons."

Jovita Watts, manager of a Dunkin' Donuts store on Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester, said customers are slowly becoming aware of the new flavors and having fun mixing and matching them. She said some customers have added marshmallow flavor to their hot chocolate.

''We've had no complaints whatsoever," she said.

But Susan Rice of Roslindale said she noticed a difference immediately. Rice said she has been buying a French vanilla iced coffee almost twice a day for five years. When she tasted a recent purchase, she said something was different.

''I didn't like the taste. It's definitely a sugary, sweeter thing than the brewed drink," she said. ''It's like changing Classic Coke for me."

To add insult to injury, Rice said, her Dunkin' Donuts franchisee also raised the price of her medium cup of coffee to $2.21 from $2.09. Dunkin' Donuts officials say franchisees are free to adjust their prices, but the company itself has not recommended a price increase.

Saar said Dunkin' Donuts did extensive consumer testing to make sure there was no change in the taste of its flavored drinks. But Lingle of the specialty coffee association said the two flavoring processes are so different that there probably is some slight change in taste.

Lingle said flavored coffees peaked in popularity in 1995 at about 30 percent of the specialty coffee market. Today, he said, flavored coffees represent about 20 percent of what he says is a nearly $9 billion market.

Among hot flavored coffees, Dunkin' Donuts says, it controls a third of the market. Similar figures were not available for iced coffees.

Many coffee connoisseurs are dismissive of flavored coffees. Starbucks refuses to sell flavored coffees, although the coffee shop chain will add certain syrups to coffee drinks at a customer's request.

Chris Gimbl, a spokesman for Starbucks, said the company's philosophy is to buy the best coffee beans and roast them to bring out their inherent coffee characteristics.

''Let those characteristics speak for themselves and don't add artificial flavors to them," he said.

As for the syrups Starbucks does sell, Gimbl said: ''The customer has a right to enjoy his or her coffee the way they want to enjoy it. What we don't want to do is mess with the coffee in a way that changes its integrity."

Corby Kummer, who wrote ''The Joy of Coffee" in 1995 and issued an updated version of the book in 2003, says a true coffee drinker should enjoy the taste of the coffee he or she is drinking and not drown it in a burst of flavor.

Nevertheless, Kummer applauded Dunkin' Donuts for coming up with its flavor-shot machine.

He said the machine will prevent flavors that linger after brewing and grinding from contaminating the regular coffee the chain sells.

''They're striking a blow for coffee quality and also offering greater consumer choice," he said.

Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com.