For my entire life, I have grown up eating the one and only Dunkin' Donuts. It's a New England thing. No matter how often the slogan "America Runs On Dunkin'" rings, you'd be hard-pressed to find Dunkin' Donuts stores crammed in the same density as you would anywhere else in New England. There are eight in my hometown alone, and I can get to three of them within a five minutes' drive of my house. It's like finding a Starbucks in Manhattan - you almost can't turn a corner without walking into one.

Dunkin' has a diverse menu that satisfies a variety of palates - they have always had a wide variety of bagels and a similarly wide amount of cream cheeses to go with it, as well as an endless number of ways to have a sandwich. And should you not want a donut, have no fear! How about a muffin? Or a bagel twist?

For as long as I can remember, all of those options had been available to me. I could have an onion bagel with chive and onion cream cheese. Or a cheddar cheese bagel twist. I could even have a corn muffin. If I was dieting, a reduced-fat blueberry one.

Well, none of those are going to be an option anymore - in a move to reduce their menu, Dunkin' is ridding its menu of several of its items, including aforementioned corn muffins and onion bagels with chive and onion cream cheese. The new menu change is set to go into motion beginning on January 8th, but the powers that be decided to stop shipping the items that were being reduced on New Years' Day, leaving shops across the region to hoard the reduced items for a week so they could break the news to their customers that no, this item that you really loved? This is going to be the last of it you can get here, because it's being discontinued.

In a series of moves that also included ridding its donuts of all artificial dyes and bringing back the 2 for $2 egg and cheese wake-up wraps (an extra dollar if you have meat, and yes, you can mix and match!), this is probably the worst. The full discontinued list falls as thus:

Breads: Flatbread, Ciabatta, Texas Toast, Onion Bagel, Cheddar Cheese Bagel Twist, Garlic Bagels, Salt Bagel, Sour Cream 'n Onion Bagel, Biscuits

Meats: Chicken Salad, Turkey Sausage, Tuna Salad, Angus Steak, (White Cheddar Cheese), Chicken Cutlets

Cream Cheeses: Chive n' Onion, Reduced Fat Plain

Pastries: Corn Muffin, Reduced Fat Blueberry Muffin, Bran Muffin, Danish, Brownies, Cookies

Flavor Shots: Peach, Blueberry, Caramel

Sandwiches: Chicken Bacon, Turkey Bacon, Chicken Salad, Big 'n Toasted

There have been talks of reducing the menu in the works since this summer, and from preliminary reactions, people have not been happy about the reduction. And I can't blame them. The reason for the reduction is to streamline the waiting time that people have for their food and drinks, but there are several things I'd like to point out.

One, in what way would reducing the number of pastries on the menu streamline the process? Each time you order a muffin or a donut (or a cheddar cheese bagel twist!), no matter what, the cashier will still have to turn around and grab the item to bag it. The variety of pastries on the menu doesn't matter - if they are placed in the same section every single day, the cashier should be able to recognize what they need to grab in a fairly quick manner.

Out of all of the items that are being removed from the menu, I find it incredulous that the items being removed are the ones that customers are asking for the most. Corn muffins, for instance. If the data to determine which menu items are being pulled is based off of a survey, which shops are lacking in sales of corn muffins? Which ones are lacking in sales of flatbread, or of onion bagels? Who chose the items to take off of the menu?

I'd like to have a word with them, actually. I want my onion bagel back.