Krispy Kreme Invade the British Isles

[Eve]

I myself have never ingested a K.K., and have heard their delicacy both lauded and reviled. Thought you might be interested, and Brits might take heed:

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) - Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. plans to begin selling its signature glazed treats in the United Kingdom under a franchise arrangement. The Winston-Salem-based company said Thursday it will team up with both Chesire and Kent Ltd. and Donald Henshall to form Krispy Kreme UK Ltd. in a franchise deal to open 25 British stores during the next five years. The company currently runs more than 250 stores in 37 states and Canada. An estimated 5 million Krispy Kreme doughnuts are made everyday.

[unclviny]

i too suffered the "you've never had a krispy kreme" thing for (it seemed like) ~300 years, spare yourself, they suck!, they are marginal donuts with (here comes the secret) ~10 times the glazing on them.

unclviny

[Ukulele Ike]

Originally posted by unclviny
10 times the glazing on them.

Oh, this should be VERY big. At the risk of stereotyping, the Brits are known for loving their sweets.

[beagledave]

Adding more fun to the abomination that is British dental care...

[japatlgt]

Donut bias? The Krispy Kreme is reverred in may parts of the US and they also offer the full range of filled and cake donuts as do other shoppes. The key to the delicacy of the orginal KK is to consume them fresh/hot. God save the Queen!!!

[ftg]

The interesting part is that England is one of the few places where the introduction of these flavorless grease blobs might actually improve the local cuisine.

[Tansu]

Eat here often, lad?

[Bippy the Beardless]

Don't bother with KK doughnuts, Asda's fresh made jam filled doughnuts are far better.
Cheers, Keithy

(A Brit in silicon valley)

[medstar]

A warning to all of you Brits who find your rear ends doubling in size in a distressingly short period of time--don't come crying to us. This is just another facet of our world domination scheme.

[Slainte]

I love Krispy Kreme - they are much better than Dunkin' Donuts. They are best when they are fresh/hot as japatlgt mentioned.

[Sunspace]

I have the misfortune to work within the Distraction Radius of the only KK in the Toronto area. So I've encountered them. Way too greasy for my taste.

On the box, it says "microvave for 8 seconds". That's got to be the shortest cooking-time recommendation I've ever esnountered...

[Pushkin]

Originally posted by Slainte
I love Krispy Kreme - they are much better than Dunkin' Donuts. They are best when they are fresh/hot as japatlgt mentioned.

Dunkin' Donuts has just done a disappearing act here in Belfast, their replacements (where the stores have remained open) are just not as good. Not claiming DD's was that great, just the replacements are worse.

[Liberal]

Plain glazed right out of the oven. After that, you can die happy.

[Typo Negative]

Originally posted by unclviny
i too suffered the "you've never had a krispy kreme" thing for (it seemed like) ~300 years, spare yourself, they suck!, they are marginal donuts with (here comes the secret) ~10 times the glazing on them.

unclviny

You have just lost all credibility.

Krisp Kremes are evidence that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

[Johnny L.A.]

Krisp Kremes are evidence that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

No, they're not.

[dantheman]

They're really, really, really, bad for you, even compared with other donuts.

Name change! Next flight to Pudgy Britain departs in five minutes! Remember, here on Southwest Airlines, you overweight people have to pay for two seats...

[garius]

Thanks for the heads up guys - i now have another crap food chain to add to my "avoid like the plague" list.

[smiling bandit]

Foolish British-type persons of various genders!

Mwah-ha-ha-ha-HA!

Now you will Kneel, Kneel! Before Zuul!

And have a Krispy-Kreme Dougnut.

[garius]

sorry smiling bandit but most of the supermarkets here do VERY good and VERY reasonably priced donuts.

So we will not be conquered

[owlstretchingtime]

You'll never wean us off our devotion to spotted dick.

[dantheman]

Look! There's one!

[unclviny]

spooje,
give benfranklin back his quote, i listened to the disciples of krispy kreme and i'm a big fat guy so when a kk opened close to the house i went down there and bought an assortment, out of the folks in my house (3 adults and 2 kids), nobody liked them.
i went through the same thing with "sliders" (white castle), those crappy waana be "burgers" so i stopped and got some the first chance that i got, yuck!, suckass imitation burgers!.

unclviny

[Johnny L.A.]

You'll never wean us off our devotion to spotted dick.

Try some penicillin.

_{Sorry. Couldn't resist the obvious penis joke.}

[jjimm]

I LOVE Krispy Kreme. I like Dunkin' better, but they don't make them right outside the US.

[DMark]

I read they are also on their way to Australia and New Zealand...

I think they are the best, unhealthy, fattening, addictive, teeth-rotting product on the market.

I buy a dozen every Wednesday and bring them to work...I guarantee you I will be the last person ever fired from this company because of that....they already refer to Wednesdays here as Krispy Kreme day. Of course, if I ever forget, it could be dangerous to go to my desk...

[Slithy Tove]

The Seattle TV stations played-up the arrival of KK like it was hard news (as opposed to "advertising," whatever that means anymore), so the hype is still pretty strong up here in the Puget Sound area.

Seeing an oportunity, enterprising people wake up closer to midnight than dawn and buy dozens of KK's (wholesale), drive them to the far corners of the counties, then stand by the busier commuter roads to hawk them. (remember that "I'll bet you dollars to donuts" cliche to describe sure-thing propositions? These people have flipped the equation and made it a useless figure of speech)

So this morning I was driving to work. It was still dark, in the 40's and lightly raining. By the road was a woman waving a big white donut box, and clutching her legs as the cars sped by were two children, who looked to be four or five years old.

I don't know their family circumstances, but whatever they are, I wish she wouldn't have to put her kids through that. I wish people wouldn't buy her donuts, so she'd have to figure out a better way to raise cash. If this is what will happen in the UK, let's impose donut sanctions against Tony Blair.

[JimSox5]

Oh, I suppose they're alright, but nothing too special. I don't go out of my way to get them, but that sure doesn't mean I turn them down

[Gazelle]

They're doughnuts. Not very exciting.

Give me a gigantic chocolate chip cookie over a Krispy Kreme any day.

[Kaio]

They're overpriced. I went to the BRAND NEW! KK store that opened downtown a few weeks ago to see what the hype was about.

They wanted a $1 PER DONUT. Dude, I can get an identical donut for 35 cents at my local grocery. Why would I pay 3 times that for a label?

(And no, I never went in for designer jeans either. )

Oh, and it didn't help that they messed up my order, either. (Here I was hoping for something extraordinary, or at least different, and they gave me the custard-filled donut that's exactly like the ones at the grocery store.)

[Philosophocles]

Imagine this...Krispie Kreme uses an adaptation of XTC's "Senses Working Overtime" as the theme song for a massive ad campaign in the UK. XTC pulls in a ton of royalties and suddenly feels inspired to do a world tour. Dave rejoins the band. Before long, XTC is getting more radio airplay than Eminem. XTC starts cranking out new CDs like crazy and they all go multi-platinum.

But then they all get a case of megalomania, Andy gets addicted to Dunkin Donuts, the music starts to suffer, and they fade away again into semi-obscurity.

[everton]

Feel free to make as many plans for Nigel as you like Phil, but there's no way I'm going to spend 60 pence on a friggin' doughnut unless its fed to me by Sophie Anderton in a thong.

[Johnny L.A.]

They wanted a $1 PER DONUT. Dude, I can get an identical donut for 35 cents at my local grocery. Why would I pay 3 times that for a label?

Indeed. Why not go to Winchell's and buy doughnuts for the whole office? For $9.99 you get 28 doughnuts. I do that occasionally. On Thursdays, as Friday is when the company buys KK. But in any case, Winchell's and Spudnuts are less expensive and they taste better.

[rostfrei]

I love Krispy Kreme. I became familiar with them when I lived in Greensboro, NC, where it seems there is one on every street corner. However, the past few times I've eaten them, they've given me BAD heartburn/indigestion. So bad that I'll probably never eat them again.

[Qadgop the Mercotan]

KK's original glazed served hot right out of the river of hot fat and curtain of sugar: To die for.

KK's original glazed microwaved 8-9 seconds: pretty good.

Every other KK product, even the original if served cold: Just another gut bomb.

thank gods the nearest outlet is 45 miles away from me.

[t-keela]

Never had one (k.k.donut that is) some of y'all say they're pretty good, huh?...I kinda like a slice of homemade PECAN pie w/ a hot cup of coffee...

"mmm-mmmm, that's goooood coffee! Oh, Andy!"
(remember that)

[Hemlock]

Originally posted by DMark
I read they are also on their way to Australia and New Zealand...

Whether these things are a blessing from the Almighty, or divine vengeance for our sins - why is the non-English-speaking world mysteriously left out? To me, this raises doubts about KK donuts' "gastronomic integrity".

[elfkin477]

I find it interesting that they're sending them overseas, yet have not opened any stores in the (extreme) Northeast. Up here we eat our dunkin donuts and like it!

[screech-owl]

But do they still sell the toy trucks (semi-trailers) and boxer shorts emblazoned with the name and logo? Ours did locally, but I haven't stepped into a KK since I can't have sugar anymore.

Oh, and say hello to traffic jams once the stores do open. One opened up near my office, and I had to find an alternate route for at least a month til the novelty died down and they put in a new traffic light near the store (I swear to the almighties, there was a two mile traffic jam for the drive-thru lane).

[ruadh]

Pheh. When Mrs Fields comes to the "British Isles", then I'll get excited.

[unclviny]

t-keela,
if ever in houston, go to "jim goode's goode company bar-b-que" for what is possibly the worlds finest pecan pie (this coming from a texas born and raised fat guy whose mother was a coon ass).

unclviny

[t-keela]

Originally posted by unclviny
t-keela,
if ever in houston, go to "jim goode's goode company bar-b-que" for what is possibly the worlds finest pecan pie (this coming from a texas born and raised fat guy whose mother was a coon ass).

unclviny

What...no KK donuts?

I used to live off Kirby...is that the one you're talking about?

and I got folks from down de bayou, dats wut Im talkin bout, me!

dey eet dem crawdads an' suk dem heads, yeah

My mamaw she from n'orleans, down near Algiers, from de wrong side de river.

I got sum boudreaux an fonteneau's and tibedeaux in de family tree, (near Laffitte, I tink we kin to dat ol' pirate)

dey sum partyin muthers in dat Cajun country....

[SpectBrain]

See here, if'n you live in the country and y'all have to go into the big city of Winston-Salem a couple of times a year to sell your tobaccy and buy tractor parts and other stuff for the farm, you might have some of them Krispy Kremes and that'd be OK, just an occasional treat. But every day...yecchh!

BTW if you're in Winston-Salem, stop at Dewey's bakery and get some of their Moravian sticky buns. Those are truly memorable!

[Kyla]

I've never seen a Krispy Kreme shop. There's one about 60 miles away from my hometown, but that's pretty far for a doughnut. There don't appear to be any in Ann Arbor either. But I have had them a couple times from grocery stores that carry them.

Verdict:

They're doughnuts.

They taste good.

This is because - pay attention, here - doughnuts taste good.

I don't get this doughnut snobbery. A doughnut is a doughnut is a doughnut!

[Skerri]

So, is Krispy Kreme going to become the next Starbucks?

Personally, I love Krispy Kreme doughnuts. They are just sooo good. They sell them in grocery stores here, but it's always better to go and get them fresh from the bakery. My favorite ones are the plain chocolate frosted ones. Mmmmm.

[Johnny L.A.]

I don't get this doughnut snobbery. A doughnut is a doughnut is a doughnut!

Except that KK doughnuts are overly sweet, overly greasy, and lack substance. Were it not that the company buys us doughnuts once a week, I'd rarely have any kind of doughnut. But there is so much "hype" about KKs that I can't refrain from crying, "The emporer has no clothes!"

[unclviny]

t-keela,
The one on kirby is my favorite, i'm offshore out of intracoastal city as we speak (icy, la is just south of abbeville dontcha know), I have family in chalmette, mama was from les cha (lake charles for the rest of you) and daddy was from tulsa, I was born to be oilfield trash! (I showed them all and got me one of them 'puter jobs but it's still in "da patch").

unclviny

[Shirley Ujest]

Brit's give us the Spice Girls, we retailiate with donuts.

Seems fair.