I'm just getting to the Phoenix article on our New England fixation with Dunkin Donuts. Lots of interesting tidbits. I didn't know there were franchises in Bulgeria and South Korea.

But the theme of the article is coffee as identity.

...[L]ook at the Starbucks in Central Square, and compare it to the Dunkin’ Donuts just across Mass Ave. In one, piped-in music percolates down and steam ascends ephemerally from behind a granite counter. Well-dressed people sit in upholstered chairs, squinting into placidly glowing laptops. In the other, folks line up in a spare and sterile space, brightly lit by fluorescent bulbs. They place an order perfunctorily — perhaps, on Valentine’s Day, an old man pauses for a moment to flirt with his favorite cashier. They get their coffee and their food. And they leave. Coffee as fuel. Coffee as lifestyle. Which you choose is up to you, but very few people choose both.

A personal statement? And here I was thinking it was about the coffee. My opinion on the subject is this: coffee is like beer. Sometimes you want to savor a microbrew and sometimes you want to be refreshed with a Bud Light. Dunkin Donuts is the Bud Light of coffee. And I like Bud Light.

But read the article. There's a lot of good information.