Heretic!!
If by “faddish”, you mean “since 1937”, well, I can’t argue with you there.
The main difference between a Krispy Kreme glazed donut and a “regular” donut (one you would buy at Dunkin’ Donuts, a bakery, or ugh the grocery store…) is that KK donuts are yeast raised, as opposed to a cake-type donut. That’s why KK donuts are light and fluffy, and you can eat a box in one sitting.
**KK personnel, please see my profile for information on where to send the endorsement check
Dude. Dude.
Go to Lone Star Bakery in Round Rock, TX. Get the Round Rock Doughnuts.
They are THE BEST donuts I’ve ever had.
Mmmmmm.
http://www.lubbockonline.com/news/021697/bakerys.htm
http://www.roundrockdonuts.com/
And I worked at KK. They’re really not that good. Taste like every other donut I’ve other had, but getting a free donut while they’re being made is pretty neat. I went there more than once whilst dirt poor just to make the tummy stop growling at me. Nutritious.
However, while in Austin, I do have a tendancy to stop at KK around 2 am to get a dozen and take it back to where ever I’m staying and have a fine time with friends. How’s that for a run-on sentence?
Never heard of this loser. He can take a flyin’ f*&k at a rollin’ donut for all I care. Krispy Kremes forever!
Well, you’re all wrong. Tim Hortons, purveyor of donuts either cake or pastry, leaves all your inferior makers of donuts in the dust.
Nothin’ like a good donut rivalry to make me look forward to my coffee break ! 
Krispy Kremes are the best available in the Denver area, IMNSHO. Dunkin Donuts are… bleah. Winchell’s are downright VILE. There is a local chain called LaMar’s that is supposed to be good, but I have not personally experienced.
That being said, I do agree that some of them are too sweet. The Chocolate Glazed Kreme Filled are so sweet they make me sick to my stomach. I tried the New York Cheesecake, and the topping is too sweet, and the filling is downright NASTY. New York Cheesecake doesn’t have lemon in it, you dolts at Krispy Kreme! Even my 14 year old thinks most of them are too sweet-- he’ll only eat original glazed. I like the chocolate glazed custard filled myself, and originals.
Whoa, what weirdness is this? You mean if I walk into a typical Krispy Kreme store, I can’t even buy fresh dontus? This makes less and less sense to me. Is the coffee brought in on a tanker truck, too?
Next time there are some around, I will try heating one and eating it hot, though.
I never said they were no good, after all, I just don’t think they’re worth all the fuss.
I’ll take that as a warning to stay away from DD next time I’m down South, then, but around here, they really seem very similar to KK. Hmm, maybe I should arrange a blind taste-test (which would, purely incidentally, require me and my friends to eat lots of donuts, of course).
Alas, that was something that occurred to me moments after I clicked “submit.” Still, you Southerners invented (pardon my French) grits, for Pete’s sake, so the less said, the better.
I’m sorry, but this just proves my point. If the recipie and the donuts themselves were so great, why did it take 60+ years to conquer America? Starbucks pulled the same job practically overnight, and their coffee is (while perhaps not exactly the ne plus ultra of coffee) at least an obvious couple notches up from the average diner’s.
I’ve had Krispy Kream donuts a few times in my life–it takes about three times for me to reach the conclusion that I definately do NOT like something. And, yep, that’s about what happened with KK, even when I factored in the lighted sign.
Years ago, DD used to make their lemon filled donuts covered with POWERED sugar (instead of granulated), and the lemon filling was tart, not overly sweet. IMHO, DD has gone downhill in years past.
Maybe my donut buds are just going downhill…
Thank you, this is exactly the sort of specific detail I was hoping to hear about, although the idea of eating a box of donuts - Krispy Kreme or otherwise - at one sitting makes me a little… woozy.
A little Googling does show that donut recipes that include yeast (and there are many of them out there) are often referred to as “Krispy Kreme” style donuts.
My love of donuts is one of my dark secrets.
I am also an advocate of fine cuisine.
Krispy Kreme donuts are terrible. I’ve had them warm and I’ve had them cold and the taste is unpleasant either way. They are much too sweet; their flavor is cloying and repulsive. The sudden rise of KK as a national chain is one of the most ludicrous food fads I’ve ever seen.
There are many places that server better donuts.
If any anyone reading this is ever in Seattle, stop by Top Pot (also known as the Zeitgeist Cafe) on Capitol Hill. Their Top Pot donuts are truly fabulous.
But let’s face it, folks: donuts will never be high cuisine. The adoration of donuts, whether those made by KK or somewhere else, is kind of pathetic.
They’re just donuts! They are not mana from heaven or some other nonsense.
At least around here, Krispy Kreme’s are sold in many grocery stores–they are not made at the grocery stores, but at the KK place and then yes, driven to the store or outlet. The same day, of course, so they’re always still plenty soft and good.
If you walk into a real Krispy Kreme store (which at least around here are surprisingly not very numerous considering the extremely long lines at these places), more often than not they will be making fresh doughnuts that you can get hot right off the conveyor belt.
:eek:
:dubious:
Spoken like someone who has never had to do without.
I didn’t really appreciate donuts until I moved to England and realized that I couldn’t get any. I could get oversized, overpriced things called “American Donuts” at a stand in the touristy part of Brighton (IIRC), but I don’t really trust English interpretations of food that I like, particularly those intended for tourists.
Then, I went to Brazil and saw a Dunkin’ Donuts in Rio, which was too frightening to enter.
By the time I got home, the cravings were enormous.
Now, I have maybe one donut a month, but if I’ve learned anything in my travels, it’s true, honest appreciation of snack food.
They’ve been around forever, yes. When I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s, my local Krispy Kreme was the one just south of Alexandria, VA, on U.S. 1. I made a lot of donut runs there.
But they became a fad sometime in the mid to late 1990s; I have no idea why. Because I agree with the OP that they aren’t anything special when they’re cold.
When I was in my teens, they were cheap. Glazed donuts were 6¢ apiece. That’s right, six cents! I think their most expensive donut was 9¢ then. Cheap was a big selling point at that age, of course.
Now I think their glazed donuts are 65¢ apiece. (Sure, they’re cheaper by the dozen, but they were then, too.) Despite three decades of inflation, few things that have been available both then and now cost ten times what they did then. I can get pretty much the same donuts in the bakery case at Giant or Food Lion at 2 or 3 for $1. And I can’t taste a difference that makes KK worth the premium.
It’s not that I consider them bad, just not worth the premium you pay to buy a KK donut.
That comment nailed it on the head. There are people in this world who think donuts should be light and fluffy and sweet. They love Krispy Kremes.
There are people, and many of them seem to be posting here, who think that donuts, even the glazed ones, should have a little more character.
My wife and daughter think Krispy Kremes are too sweet. My sons and I eat them in one bite. I’m not sure what that says about any of us.
But I will agree that almost any fresh, hot donut can beat almost any donut that’s a few hours old.
GMRyujin and I were just debating this the other day. I’m from the North, and there were no KK up there. My first taste of them was down in Georgia. I volunteered to a blind taste-test to determine which is better, since it’s been a few years since I had DD. It seems to me however, that the DD were somehow lighter the the KK. ANd, while I do love the creme filled KK, Dunkin had a chocolate creme filled.
Overall, though, I find donuts are doughnuts, and I’ve never been one to turn down food.
I’m with Morelin: why would you turn down a donut?
Except for grocery store donuts, which are foul and disgusting most of the time.
DD & KK are both wonderful and delicious. I’ve never been fortunate enough to try a Tim Horton’s, but I hope one day to do so.
Once a year or so, I hold a donut-making party, which means I make two batches of donuts from scratch. One batch is yeasted, and the other is cake. Two batches is enough for about a dozen people to eat donuts until they’re sick, and then eat a few more, and then freeze some for later.
Mmm, donuts. I think it’s getting to be about time for another party.
Daniel
They’re absolutely awful. Hot, cold, whatever.
Grease and sugar are not flavors.
Krispy Kremes are the Starbucks of the doughnut world.
(That can be interpreted as you like, but I mean overrated. Better products can be found.)
It’s threads like this which make me really miss being able to see posters’ locations…
It does seem like a cultural divide–Krispy Kreme being predominately Southern, and Dunkin Donuts predominately Northern (within the U.S., anyway; I’m not aware of how the donut wars break down in Europe and elsewhere). I’m in Florida (I’m from the northern part which, of course, is the Southern part of the state culturally speaking), where I’ve had access to both chains. However, Krispy Kreme is by far the preferred donut among most locals.
And I’d have to agree. I absolutely love chocolate glazed Krispy Kreme donuts. Even plain glazed are OK, but a chocolate glazed donut is one step from nirvana.
Dunkin Donuts are OK, but in my opinion, nowhere as good as KK.
However, KK donuts are definitely better hot than cool. I would second DeVena in saying that the best way to experience them are fresh out of the oven, with a cup of coffee, at 2 AM.
I’m reallly craving a Krispy Kreme donut now.
Last fall the first Krispy Kreme store opened in my area. I couldn’t believe the huge crowds of people wanting to get in there (they had police directing traffic, for crissakes!) You would have thought they were handing out $100 bills with as many people as there were. As I drove by all I could think was, “come on, people, it’s just DOUGHNUTS!” A few days later a brave co-worker went there and brought back a couple boxes. I must say they are good, but nothing that stands out above and beyond most of the other doughnuts I have had. They had cooled off by the time I got one of them. Perhaps I should go in there and try them when they are hot. From my experiences so far, though, they’re just doughnuts.
Krispy Kreme sucks…an inferior donut at a premium price. I can’t stand the plain iced ones…they literally make my teeth hurt with that “krispy” glaze. I shudder thinking about it! I also prefer cake donuts (exception: big soft powdered sugar, yeast donuts.) and would pick dunkin’ donuts over KK anytime. But I really like small privately owned donut shops, and their much better quality donuts…luckily there are a few in the area.