krispy kreme (relatively) recently branched out to my area (metro-detroit).
i bought one a couple of weeks ago.
YUCK.
gimme a tim horton’s doughnut any day.
What KK critics seem not to understand is that the doughnuts must be hot. They must be hot. Eat them hot, and they’re incomparable. Otherwise, they’re just overly sweet.
Krispy Kreme certainly makes a good donut, but for both variety and flavor, I’ll take Dunkin’ Donuts any day.
Part of the reason KK got so much attention is that they made an extremely astute initial geographic expansion out of the southeast:
New York.
Center of the media, etc. The New York newspapers went gaga, helped along by a couple of prominent Southerners who wrote articles in the Times (don’t ask me names, now, I can never remember writers’ names). It’s publicity no amount of money can ever buy. And all of the articles were completely laudatory - the Times ran a taste-test, in which the only one in the same league was a little place in Harlem. Harlem’s a long way to go for a donut.
The first New York KK was in my neighborhood, of all places - 23rd Street just off of 8th.
As for quality - I quite like the KK classic, meaning the glazed, raised doughnut. I think it’s superior to what’s readily available from the competition. It’s a little puff of pure sweetness.
The fillings are only OK. But their chocolate is quite good, as is the sour cream (as mentioned).
It was, of course, a huge risk for KK. If you bomb in New York, you’re pretty much dead meat. But they succeeded. And of course since New York is also the financial capital of the world (yes, I mean that), that success meant an IPO every bank was clawing to get. It’s about the only IPO in 2001 that actually made money for investors who bought and continued to hold.
Ive also heard that Seinfeld did the KK plug before he went off the air, and that kind of endorsement will make excrement taste like ice cream. And, let’s be real…it’s like one of the jokers that say that they know “where the REAL Mexican food is”…you go there and the food tastes like crap and unlike any that you can find in Mexico, or else it tastes just like the stuff you find in Every Mexican food establishment-then, when you call the joker on it he’ll say something like “o, it was a bad night” or you didn’t try the correct dish, etc… It’s psychological, not in the donuts, methinks. Also, as someone else pointed out (im too lazy to look back at the thread to find out whom) the service and layout of the stores are great…the one here in OKC is ultra cool…too bad their donuts are so weak.
I just want to throw out one Northern word here: Scrapple.
Speaking of low standards for what is edible that is. Pig face? :eek:
There is one KK in the state of Washington. It is located in Issaquah, a bedroom community 20 miles east of Seattle. It is exactly a 75 mile round trip for me, my best time is a little under 2 hours roundtrip. It has been open since last September and on some weekends, the lines still extended to the Home Depot, which is about 100 yards from the KK. Been there 3 times and have always gotten a free sample fresh from the glazing machine. Maybe it was all the drooling.
You got it, Gad! I wondered what the fuss was about, especially after an otherwise sane friend of mine started raving about them after they first opened by us. So I drove up, bought one (hot) original glazed, just 'cuz I was passing by, bit it, nearly lost control of the car because of the mystical transport, turned around and took a dozen home.
And was disappointed at home by their taste. Until I discovered: stick 'em in the micro on high for 10 seconds! The entire family fell into a feeding frenzy.
I can’t imagine how Krispy Kreme could expand into this area. This place is pretty much owned by Dunkin Donuts. That joke about looking out the window of a Tim Horton’s and seeing another is true here for the Dunkin Donuts at the corner of Washington and Esseex and the one at the corner of Tremont and Boylston. I once went to the store locator on the Dunkin Donuts website, and put in my compny’s address. The fifteenth closest Dunkin Donuts was .54 miles away, but that was only because the website was missing three franchises.
And whatever market share Dunkin Donuts doesn’t have is already claimed by Honey Dew.
We didn’t have any Krispy Kreme stores where I grew up, but some boy scouts used to sell them door to door on weekend mornings (I guess they drove down to Virginia to pick 'em up). I quite liked them, even though they weren’t warm. The microwave trick does help in that department.
I can’t stand Dunkin’ Donuts, and would wager that a typical DD doughnut has more sugar than a KK doughnut (which is much lighter).
Hopefully there won’t be a repeat of the Krispy Kream phenom. when the Waffle House and the Huddle Huts go public.
p.s. And the surgeon general is concerned when 50% of Americans are Obese. Pretty soon doughnuts will be taxed like cigarettes, liquor, and gasoline!
Yep, you can put me in the “too sweet” camp. I mean, with all that glazed sugar caked on, you can barely taste the donut. I was pretty down on KK, until I learned the secret:
Go in when the “Hot donuts” sign is lit, and you can request donuts before they’re dipped in the sugar glaze! This way, you can go home, add a little bit of powder sugar, and you can enjoy the KK donut without going into glucose shock!
You’re talking about the Krispy Kreme-bashers, aren’t you? Because I can’t think of a conceivable way where someone would prefer the boat-anchor lumps of dough that come from Winchell’s or Dunkin’ Donuts over a lighter-than-air Krispy Kreme… 
Although there may be a factual answer to the question that was originally posed, this thread seems to have degenerated into a sort of opinion poll, so I’ll move it to IMHO.
Besides, everybody knows the best doughnuts are the ones I make from sourdough-and-mashed-potato dough fried in lard and frosted with a honey-coriander glaze. Damn, I’m getting hungry.
I once heard KK donuts described as “pure fat in its most addictive form”.
But my beef with KK is they only make one kind of donut worth a damn–the original glazed.
I’ll take a dozen from Tim Horton’s over a dozen KK glazed because of their better variety–but put at least 4 Canadian Maples in there.
I also found Tim’s to be the only donut place that ever had good non-donut food.
While I’m no donut connoisseur, I think KK donuts are great. When they were just new to So. Cal. some friends and I went to go get them. It was a bit of a drive, but we were going just to make the trip anyways. I’ve never waited in line more than 10 minutes at KK, and almost always get hot, fresh donuts. Personally I like really sweet, so I think the original glazed are great. I love the way they melt in your mouth. They seem to hold up very good over time compared to other (admittedly generic brand) donuts I’ve had.
It seems like they’re all about word of mouth. Back when I went to UCLA (about 2 years ago) they were gonna give a free donut (or was it 6) to anyone who had tickets to the $C/LA football game for the side that scored the first point. Since LA scored first (but friggin lost), all of us UCLA people got free donuts. Good marketing, if you ask me.
I’m gonna have to go try Spudnuts though since they’re just a few miles away.
Krispy Kreme straight-outta-the-fryer glazed donuts are a gooey delight.
But then, so would any straight-outta-the-fryer donuts. They are just devilishly difficult to come by, since most donut joints make their donuts in the middle of the night.
The non-raised KK donuts are not mediocre, they are extremely bad. They are dense, chewy, dry and tasteless. If you go for the cake/buttermilk donut, as I do, forget KK. Bad Bad Bad.
KK is overrated like plasticbryan said. They’re not bad, but they’re not indian fry bread either, and that’s what they seem to be shooting for. They’re too moist for me. DD can be too bready and KK too chewy.
Reading someone call KK a “Yankee” thing is pretty weird, because they’re only now invading the Northeast. I’ve still never even seen one. KKs in New York are definitely new.
I was on a flight from Washington D.C. back to Boston, and one guy had what must have been a dozen boxes of KK doughnuts tied togetrher. What the heck is ion them – heroin?
The last time I was at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC they had Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the cafeteria. "Aha!’ I thought, “I can finally try one!” So I did. I still can’t see the attraction. Either it was a counterfeit KK, or else you really do have to eat them warm.
I still can’t stand the name. “Krisy” Kreme? Krispy? Doughnuts aren’t supposed to be “Krispy”! That’s like selling Lumpy Sour Milk.
KK just opened a franchise on the outskirts of Toronto, but I haven’t bothered going yet. I don’t have a car, and it’s impossible to get to without one. For now, I agree with all the other Canadians that’ve posted: Tim Horton’s is practically our national religion. KK can’t compete- that would be sacrilege!