I love a good iced coffee on a hot day. And though I gave up morning coffee for New Year’s, that’s not gonna stop me from enjoying the occasional afternoon sweet coffee treat as the weather begins to warm.
But since, after tipping, the local coffee chains charge nearly $5 a pop for a vanilla latte, even as an occasional treat it can be rather expensive. So, always in search of a bargain, I thought I’d sample the local fast food drive-thru’s to see if there was an acceptable (and cheaper) alternative.
There was.
Here are my results, from best to worst.
(rating scales are from 1-5, with 1=’not at all’ and 5=’extremely’)
Winner: Jack in the Box
- Price: $1.79 for a small
- Strength: 3
- Sweetness: 2.5
- Creaminess: 4
I discovered Jack in the Box iced coffees last summer and found them to be a creamy, pleasing blend of decent-tasting coffee and sweetness that wasn’t too sweet. I just get the ‘original’ which I think is actually vanilla.
Friends, I don’t just hand out first prize willy-nilly; I visited multiple Jack in the Box restaurants in my area and all were consistently good. After trying all of its competitors, this one comes out on top.
Runner-Up: Chick-Fil-A
- Price: $2.75 for a small
- Strength – 4
- Sweetness – 4
- Creaminess – 3.5
I got the vanilla (as opposed to the regular) and after just one sip I said to myself, “Chick-Fil-A came to play!” The coffee is strong enough that the flavor holds up despite the added syrup, but it’s not a bitter-strong; it’s a delicious-good-coffee strong. It was really creamy and the syrup had a great flavor. My only complaint was that it was a teeny little bit too sweet. It wasn’t a sickeningly-sweet type of sweetness, but more like a this-is-a-treat-not-just-a-coffee sweetness.
Third Place: Taco Bell
- Price: $1.49 for the only size option; 20 oz
- Strength – 3
- Sweetness – n/a
- Creaminess – n/a
Yup, Taco Bell serves iced coffee. This is just traditional brewed coffee that’s served over ice. There are no flavors and you choose how many cream or sugars to add, so you can customize it to your liking. I chose 6 creams and 3 sugars. While I mixed it several times throughout drinking it, I continued to get sugar granules through my straw that didn’t disintegrate. The coffee itself wasn’t bad, but it would have been better if sweetened with a smooth syrup. I’ll be honest, at first I wasn’t too excited about this one but it grew on me the more I drank it.
Fourth Place: McDonald’s
- Price: $1.49 for a small
- Strength – 1.5
- Sweetness – 3
- Creaminess – 2
McDonald’s came in way too watery and way too sweet. I could barely even taste the coffee it was so weak. Not a contender.
Fifth Place: Burger King
Burger King
- Price: $2.99 for the only one size option; 16 oz
- Strength – 4
- Sweetness – 4
- Creaminess – 3
This was the strongest coffee I had (and not good coffee at that), and I think they tried to mask it by killing it with sweetness. After one sip I knew this wasn’t even close to being in the running. Skip it at BK.
Big Loser: Dairy Queen
- Price: $2.29 for a small
- Strength – 4
- Sweetness – 4
- Creaminess – 4
At the first taste I wondered if they’d accidentally given me the mocha flavor instead of vanilla. But no, it was definitely vanilla. It was strong and decent coffee, and the creaminess was on point, but the syrup turned this into the loser of the whole bunch. It was way too sweet, had a flavor that resembled chocolate syrup topping for ice cream (which is weird considering this was the “vanilla” flavor), and an odd metallic after taste. I didn’t even finish it and it quickly found its way to the garbage can.
Conclusion
In the end, it was super close between the top two contenders. I really loved Chick-Fil-A’s iced coffee for the superior quality, but Jack-in-the-Box eeked out on top because of the low price (under $2 including tax!) and because it was slightly less sweet. But I promise you, you’ll be quite happy treating yourself to either.
Honestly, the rest weren’t even close. Skip ’em all and just go for the top two winners when you need a cold, sweet summer pick-me-up.
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