Krispy Kremes hot glazed donuts are the food of the gods. The rest of their donuts are like any other. I can eat a dozen in one sitting, but I pay dearly for it when I’m up with heartburn all night. They taste good, but don’t agree with my 37 year old digestive system.
There are really no bad donuts. (I think they used to be spelled doughnuts before Dunkin Donuts. . .) But anything made by a chain store is going to be of uneven quality, despite all professed chain standards. No, the best donuts are somewhere in your town, in a shop that might have several local outlets but no national affiliation. Because as soon as it goes national, quality will drop.
Person in Denver, I recommend Mr. Donut on Colorado Boulevard, the Donut Hut in Littleton (other places, too, but I’m not sure where) and a place that merely says “doughnuts” (although I think they’re working on a bigger sign) next to the middle eastern market on S. Colorado Blvd.
Krispie Kremes–yeah, cutesy name, also I noted that odd aftertaste. Still, I’d eat one. Probably I’d eat . . . two. And . . . oh, maybe just another bite.
If I never eat another doughnut in my life, I’ll be just as happy. But, if I ever eat another doughnut, it will be a fresh, hot Krispy Kreme. Here in North Carolina, my first fresh, hot Krispy Kreme made me say “aha! this is the point of doughnuts!” Is it possible that as the franchise has grown quickly, the quality has been somewhat uneven? I’ve gotten mine pretty close to the original source.
I think Harriet may have a very good point, there. I live roughly 30 minutes from the very first Krispy Kreme, and all the ones I’ve ever had have been from locations here in the Triad. If there’s anywhere quality is likely to be undiminished, it’s here.
Krispy Kreme is manna from heaven. In the Triad ,they can be called “krippy krim”,try a dozen without glaze,hot from the line,with a large Bailey’s and coffee. Or a glazed doughnut with black coffee in bed. True addicts can also purchase beaded evening bags from Winston-Salem jewelers to flaunt their Krispy Kreme connection(or company stock) 
I never thought that I would ever, ever meet anyone else who had been to Greenfield. I was born there, and I feel I can safely say that the Sweet Shop has the best damn donuts I have EVER wrapped my lips around.
Second to that, though, is the Doughnut Bank in Evansville, IN. They have awesome pumpkin spice donuts.
After having several varieties of their donuts, I’ve found that Krispy Kreme can’t hold a candle to Sweet Shop or Doughnut Bank. Damn, I miss living in Indiana.
To those of you who have expressed such hatred of KK:
You’re wrong. It’s as simple as that. You’re unequivocably, undeniably, without-a-doubt, WRONG. It’s generally true that opinions can’t be wrong, but this debate is a notable exception. If your opinion isn’t that Krispy Kremes are the greatest chain-made doughnuts by at least 2 orders of magnitude, then your opinion needs serious reconsideration.
I find the lack of convincing evidence to the contrary hard to ignore. And the whining about what’s “wrong” with them hilarious. “They’re too sweet…they’re too greasy!” :smack: They’re doughnuts, for Christ’s sake. They’re supposed to be sweet and greasy, and the sweeter and greasier the better. Complaining about a sugar-coated, deep-fried confection that posesses these properties in abundance is akin to complainig about your Porsche because it’s got too much power. Or complaining that the ATM gave you two twenties when you only asked for one. If you don’t want it sweet and greasy, why’d you order the goddamned doughnut in the first place?
Anyway, in response to an earlier post about the long lines at a KK, and why they don’t have more stores. KK franchising practicies make it hard for peopleto open new stores. I don’t remember the numbers offhand, but you have to open a certain number of stores as a minimum (something like 5), and each has significant startup costs. The total necessary initial investment is well into the 7-figure range. Few food service franchises are so costly…
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They’re just doughnuts.
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There’s no platonic ideal doughnut. KK will do.
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I think any yeast doughnut is better fresh and hot than otherwise. Cake doughnuts (which I like only in chocolate) are a different creature.
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Anyone touting KK as the ne plus ultra of doughnuts either hasn’t been exposed to many doughnuts, or has fallen for what is without question some of the most masterful marketing hype in recent memory. Standing in line for an hour for doughnuts, any doughnuts, is not a rational decision. I say short KKD, but then that is betting on the public coming to their senses and realizing flour and sugar ain’t worth paying that much time or money for.
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Don’t assume Southerners all regard KK as the best. When I lived there, KK was fine, but a little low end. Velvet Creme was the preferred chain when I visited Miami (the cop car count was no contest), and KK considered downmarket. A friend told me that as a school fundraiser they used to have to sell doughnuts – the school went with KK because they were cheaper. But they were by no means terribly popular then (mid 1980s) and she told me she often was stuck buying eight of her dozen doughnuts when she couldn’t find takers (at a quarter apiece) for the KKs. There is also a school of thought that the better Southern grocery stores, with on-premises bakeries (Publix and HEB spring to mind) can turn out a hot glazed doughnut that will easily match or beat KK.
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As long as we’re purporting to identify doughnut meccas (pace my earlier cmt. that debating the best doughnut ever is a pointless inquiry) – I think it was Jones Doughnuts, Rutland Vt. that struck me at the time (6:00 a.m. on the way to go fishing) as being a pretty damn good thirty cent doughnut.
Just a note to mention that the “retro-packaging” has been around for at least 30 years, since I remember eating KKs in 1970 when I was just a kid. For what its worth, the KKs were different back then, and this isn’t just nostalgia talking. They weren’t those small rounded Dunkin’ Donut types, but were thicker and much chewier. The glaze wasn’t as thick, and was much more moist.
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
The name Krispy Kreme is, I admit, pretty awful, but the doughnuts are very, very good. Large amounts of fat and sugar are not flaws in a doughnut, they are the reason for doughnuts.