Dunkin’ Donuts unveils Hot Cocoa K-Cups for single-serve home brewing systems

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

In the event you haven’t surfeited yourself on enough sweets on Thanksgiving, Dunkin’ Donuts is doing its part to ensure that customers can enjoy a sugar infusion, in hot cocoa form, on Black Friday, a day regarded by many as the official start of the holiday shopping season.

Single-serve coffee is all the rage in coffee circles these days. Many java buffs are familiar with K-Cups --- mini-packs of joe that enable a person to produce one cup of coffee at a time in a Keurig single-serve home brewing machine. (The Keurig brand is owned by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. of Vermont.)

Since August 2011, Dunkin’ Donuts, a coffee-and-baked goods chain based in Canton, has been selling packets of K-Cups that customers can use to make single-serve coffee at home, and now the chain is adding “Hot Cocoa” to its K-Cup line-up, Dunkin’ said Tuesday.

To fan the excitement surrounding Dunkin’ Hot Cocoa’s K-Cup debut, the chain is cranking up a Black Friday Twitter promotion.

Beginning at 6 a.m. Friday, folks are invited to tweet @DunkinDonuts with hashtag #DDKCUPS and share how Dunkin’ K-Cup packs keep them running throughout the busy holiday season. Dunkin’ said it will randomly select one winner per hour until 12 p.m. The prize? A Keurig brewer along with two boxes of its newest K-Cup varieties --- Peppermint Mocha and Hot Cocoa.