Mystery solved: Grocery donuts Vs. indy shop donuts...

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The real reason why grocery store donuts are crappy compared to those independently owned donut shops is because the donuts are shipped to the store already made (quickly flash-frozen for storage purposes), they are baked in the huge commercial bakery walk-in ovens and toppings applied afterwards. Now those indy donut shops make them donuts from scratch and thus, are better tasting indeed. Not to mention the eye appeal of them as well. Now you know the 411 as to why grocery store donuts are subpar to begin with.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[BulletMagnet]

Shouldn't this have gone here? Or possibly here?

[t0yrobo]

True, but there's still levels of quality in donuts made like that. Tim Horton's gets their donuts in the same way and they're far better than grocery store donuts.

[maxlords]

Ugh....Tim Hortons donuts are CRAP. Taste like they've been frozen....all bleah. Apparently they all come frozen from Europe now too. Nothing compared to Dunkin' Donuts or a good independent bakery IMO.

[Acid King]

I didn't think it was that big of a mystery. Not all indie bakeries are created equally though, I've had some pretty shitty freshly made doughnuts. Fresh is always better than frozen though.

[Tylerxuppercut]

Ive had some nasty indie doughnuts befor! but I agree, Id rather have some from a good shop than at 711! esp then ones sittin out all day.....

[Ed Oscuro]

And this is the sort of ground-breaking reportage that made me a lifetime subscriber to NPR. I mean shmups. Wait, I didn't say that. Damn.

Mmm, donuts.

Donut vs. doughnut = spelling war was beginning?

[BulletMagnet]

Donut vs. doughnut = spelling war was beginning?

Somebody set us up the cream.

...

...creme?

[Limbrooke]

Ugh....Tim Hortons donuts are CRAP. Taste like they've been frozen....all bleah. Apparently they all come frozen from Europe now too. Nothing compared to Dunkin' Donuts or a good independent bakery IMO.

I don't entirely agree. I rarely if ever step foot in a Tim Horton's and when I do the odd donut I've ate wasn't bad. I generally stick to Sour Creme Glazed or Hawaiian, sometimes Toffee Glazed. There are also the fall specials like Pumpkin donuts which are pretty good. Speaking of pumpkin, Tim Horton's used to sell miniature pumpkin pies but stopped for some reason. Their eclairs too used to be quite nice. Tim Horton's sucks for another reason, no brownies (at least not across the board). For that, Country Style we're tops in my books but now CS is all art-nouveau bs and I wonder if you could even order a brownie (no nuts) there anymore.

I haven't seen a Dunkin around in years, but apparently there are some left in Ontario. There's a place I might investigate next week to see if it's still there as I don't remember how they were. Also, despite my spelling of donuts, doughnuts is probably the correct term to use.

[rancor]

indie shops owned by recent Korean immigrants ftw.

[maxlords]

Ugh....Tim Hortons donuts are CRAP. Taste like they've been frozen....all bleah. Apparently they all come frozen from Europe now too. Nothing compared to Dunkin' Donuts or a good independent bakery IMO.

I don't entirely agree. I rarely if ever step foot in a Tim Horton's and when I do the odd donut I've ate wasn't bad. I generally stick to Sour Creme Glazed or Hawaiian, sometimes Toffee Glazed. There are also the fall specials like Pumpkin donuts which are pretty good. Speaking of pumpkin, Tim Horton's used to sell miniature pumpkin pies but stopped for some reason. Their eclairs too used to be quite nice. Tim Horton's sucks for another reason, no brownies (at least not across the board). For that, Country Style we're tops in my books but now CS is all art-nouveau bs and I wonder if you could even order a brownie (no nuts) there anymore.

I haven't seen a Dunkin around in years, but apparently there are some left in Ontario. There's a place I might investigate next week to see if it's still there as I don't remember how they were. Also, despite my spelling of donuts, doughnuts is probably the correct term to use.

Well....in general though Dunkin' (at least the ones I used to go to in the States) were WAYYY better, as were the local fresh ones from a couple of supermarkets. The one place in Ontario I found REALLY REALLY good for doughnuts was Krispy Kreme....but almost all of em went out of business. Apparently their coffee was crap (I don't drink the stuff). Sad cause they had AMAZING doughnuts and hot chocolate! Tim's is pretty much the ONLY place to buy doughnuts in Canada, which is why they do so well...that and their coffee is like crack for people....hell there's a full service Tim Horton's IN the factory I work in. Sad huh?

[Limbrooke]

Well....in general though Dunkin' (at least the ones I used to go to in the States) were WAYYY better, as were the local fresh ones from a couple of supermarkets. The one place in Ontario I found REALLY REALLY good for doughnuts was Krispy Kreme....but almost all of em went out of business. Apparently their coffee was crap (I don't drink the stuff). Sad cause they had AMAZING doughnuts and hot chocolate! Tim's is pretty much the ONLY place to buy doughnuts in Canada, which is why they do so well...that and their coffee is like crack for people....hell there's a full service Tim Horton's IN the factory I work in. Sad huh?

There's Coffee Time and their donuts are pretty good, haven't had one in years though. Apart from that, it is slim pickings... strangely enough being in Canada. I agree with the Krispy Kreme sentiments. Excellent donuts but apparently that wasn't good enough... I look forward to the next time I'm in the US to be certain.

[rancor]

Krispy Kreme.. hah.. 2 years ago here in Japan it was a 2 hour MINIMUM wait to get into any KK in the Tokyo/Saitama area. I swear the line to the one in Shinjuku was 2km long one saturday. Today these same places are ghost towns. The Japanese are fickle people.. Just ask Burger King. Over here, "Mister Donut" is king - and they suck - the nasty japanese style coffee syrup / water mixture and donuts that taste like bread. I hear they're from california, but I've never been so I don't know how what we have here compares to whats in california.

[Ed Oscuro]

Krispy Kreme.. hah.. 2 years ago here in Japan it was a 2 hour MINIMUM wait to get into any KK in the Tokyo/Saitama area. I swear the line to the one in Shinjuku was 2km long one saturday. Today these same places are ghost towns. The Japanese are fickle people.. Just ask Burger King.

FWIW, this scenario is likely to play out in another Asian country soon - the Krispy Kreme franchise there has had epic-length lines, but the novelty is bound to wear off.

(And yes, I got the Geo Quiz right when that segment first aired. )

[Damocles]

Here in the midwest there is Daylight Donuts, as well as Dunkin. Daylight stuff is pretty damn good while fresh, but doesn't keep for very long. I can't honestly comment on Dunkin, but the donut holes I had years back were good.

[Tylerxuppercut]

And this is the sort of ground-breaking reportage that made me a lifetime subscriber to NPR. I mean shmups. Wait, I didn't say that. Damn.

Mmm, donuts.

Donut vs. doughnut = spelling war was beginning?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doughnut

its more better when you say ihat like =3

[Khan]

i <3 Krispy kremes doughnuts but at like £12 for a pack of 10 they are pretty expensive and in all honesty not worth THAT price.

[t0yrobo]

Ugh....Tim Hortons donuts are CRAP. Taste like they've been frozen....all bleah. Apparently they all come frozen from Europe now too. Nothing compared to Dunkin' Donuts or a good independent bakery IMO.

I don't entirely agree. I rarely if ever step foot in a Tim Horton's and when I do the odd donut I've ate wasn't bad. I generally stick to Sour Creme Glazed or Hawaiian, sometimes Toffee Glazed. There are also the fall specials like Pumpkin donuts which are pretty good. Speaking of pumpkin, Tim Horton's used to sell miniature pumpkin pies but stopped for some reason. Their eclairs too used to be quite nice. Tim Horton's sucks for another reason, no brownies (at least not across the board). For that, Country Style we're tops in my books but now CS is all art-nouveau bs and I wonder if you could even order a brownie (no nuts) there anymore.

I haven't seen a Dunkin around in years, but apparently there are some left in Ontario. There's a place I might investigate next week to see if it's still there as I don't remember how they were. Also, despite my spelling of donuts, doughnuts is probably the correct term to use.

I made donuts at a Tim Horton's for a couple years so I'm a little spoiled. Once they've been out of the oven for more than 15 minutes they aren't nearly as good. Even though it's dead easy to bake the donuts people always managed to screw them up where I worked, bad glaze or burnt fondant totally ruins them. I'd never buy much of anything from there though, everything but donuts and coffee is kinda pricey for what you get.

Krispy Kreme is really good, they're problem was they tried to expand too quickly and couldn't keep their shit together. It seems like they have barely any locations now.

[Vexorg]

Every once in a while you can find decent supermarket donuts, but there's enough good local places around here that you should have little problem finding better ones if you're looking for them. The one two blocks from my apartment is Top Pot which has some really good maple bars and cake donuts, but they're also fairly expensive compared to some of the other places. The ones I really like are Frost Doughnuts up in Mill Creek, but that's a long trip to go just for some donuts. We also still have some Krispy Kremes around here, but I rarely go there. They're good every once in a while, but way too sugary to eat more than one or two.

As for grocery store donuts, the best ones around here seem to be at Safeway, but I don't care much for the rest of the store, so I'm not there too often.

[MX7]

i <3 Krispy kremes doughnuts but at like £12 for a pack of 10 they are pretty expensive and in all honesty not worth THAT price.

I had one once. It was more than a quid, and really nothing special :S Yesterday I got a pack of five jam doughnuts from Sainsburies for 60p, and to be honest, I enjoyed them more. I couldn't eat doughnuts more than once every few weeks though. You can feel your life expectancy decrease as you eat them...

[Acid King]

Where I live you can throw a rock and hit a Dunkin Donuts. Personally, I think their doughnuts are bad and their coffee is awful. They seem to be another example of how well mediocrity (McDonalds, Burger King et al) sells. It's kind of sad considering how there seems to be great independent coffee shops and coffee roasters all over the place but I suppose the fact that all these places can remain open is a testament to just how much coffee people drink around here.

indie shops owned by recent Korean immigrants ftw.

Agreed. The city I worked in a few years back had a minority business loan program and a Vietnamese family opened a coffee shop down the street from my work. They really had their shit together. The doughnuts were always fresh and if you wanted jelly or cream they filled them when you ordered so they wouldn't sit and get soggy. They had awesome breakfast sandwiches and sausage kolaches (sausages baked inside dough like a pig in a blanket) too. The place went downhill after the owners stopped working there though and according to the intertubes they've since gone out of business.

[Slump]

Ugh....Tim Hortons donuts are CRAP. Taste like they've been frozen....all bleah. Apparently they all come frozen from Europe now too. Nothing compared to Dunkin' Donuts or a good independent bakery IMO.

I don't entirely agree. I rarely if ever step foot in a Tim Horton's and when I do the odd donut I've ate wasn't bad. I generally stick to Sour Creme Glazed or Hawaiian, sometimes Toffee Glazed. There are also the fall specials like Pumpkin donuts which are pretty good. Speaking of pumpkin, Tim Horton's used to sell miniature pumpkin pies but stopped for some reason. Their eclairs too used to be quite nice. Tim Horton's sucks for another reason, no brownies (at least not across the board). For that, Country Style we're tops in my books but now CS is all art-nouveau bs and I wonder if you could even order a brownie (no nuts) there anymore.

I haven't seen a Dunkin around in years, but apparently there are some left in Ontario. There's a place I might investigate next week to see if it's still there as I don't remember how they were. Also, despite my spelling of donuts, doughnuts is probably the correct term to use.

I made donuts at a Tim Horton's for a couple years so I'm a little spoiled. Once they've been out of the oven for more than 15 minutes they aren't nearly as good. Even though it's dead easy to bake the donuts people always managed to screw them up where I worked, bad glaze or burnt fondant totally ruins them. I'd never buy much of anything from there though, everything but donuts and coffee is kinda pricey for what you get.

Krispy Kreme is really good, they're problem was they tried to expand too quickly and couldn't keep their shit together. It seems like they have barely any locations now.

I've never actually cared for Krispy Kreme that much or at least I didn't think they are anything too special. As a side note I actually have one in the same lot area as where I work, literally right across the parking lot so I must be one of the lucky few who has one around. Also, I used to live near the OSU campus in Columbus, OH and I can say the indie place on high street, Buckeye Donuts, is one of the best donut shops around. Other than the small size of the place itself the food and coffee is fantastic. They used to have a street fighter II cabinet near the entrance as well but I believe it has since been removed. Anyway, anyone around the area that wants some of the best the campus area can give you should check them out.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The reason for the donut spelling was to fit it within the topic heading spacing parameters. Sure, there is the more elegant and refined spelling variation of "doughnut" and the shorter and more condensed "donut" spelling to utilize as well.

I can recall the big hype that Krispy Kreme was coming to the Central Valley of California back in the early 2000s era. Eventually, Krispy Kreme would deliver it's wares to the local supermarkets to broaden it's distribution (instead of having to go inside such an KK joint or go through the drive-thru). Then I got word that Krispy Kreme was shutting down their entire West Coast operation with a couple of KK joints left in the Bay Area to be up & running. So if you want to eat some KK "doughnuts", then you'll have to go the Bay Area or east of the Mississippi to do so.

The hard-core doughnut purveyor enjoys a good one or two from the better indie doughnut joints.

Yes, it was the Mister Donut franchise that got it's start in the Golden State of California...I used to go there back in the early 1980s after playing some arcade games at the local 7-11 for some doughnut holes and a cool refreshing cup of water during those notorious hot California summer heat wave spells. I had the chance to try out some those mighty tasty Japanese Mister Donut doughnuts during my two week stay there and it was better than those super sugary topped KK doughnuts indeed.

There used to be many indie-owned Winchell's Donuts franchises back in the early 1980s in California but they eventually closed down.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Tylerxuppercut]

i prefer donut my self but doughnut usually throws people off

yeah that sucks all the Krispy Kreme got shut down lol I mean really where else can you get drive through doughnut service! It was pretty rad altho they where a lil too sugary for my taste.

[Vexorg]

The reason for the donut spelling was to fit it within the topic heading spacing parameters. Sure, there is the more elegant and refined spelling variation of "doughnut" and the shorter and more condensed "donut" spelling to utilize as well.

I can recall the big hype that Krispy Kreme was coming to the Central Valley of California back in the early 2000s era. Eventually, Krispy Kreme would deliver it's wares to the local supermarkets to broaden it's distribution (instead of having to go inside such an KK joint or go through the drive-thru). Then I got word that Krispy Kreme was shutting down their entire West Coast operation with a couple of KK joints left in the Bay Area to be up & running. So if you want to eat some KK "doughnuts", then you'll have to go the Bay Area or east of the Mississippi to do so.

The hard-core doughnut purveyor enjoys a good one or two from the better indie doughnut joints.

Yes, it was the Mister Donut franchise that got it's start in the Golden State of California...I used to go there back in the early 1980s after playing some arcade games at the local 7-11 for some doughnut holes and a cool refreshing cup of water during those notorious hot California summer heat wave spells. I had the chance to try out some those mighty tasty Japanese Mister Donut doughnuts during my two week stay there and it was better than those super sugary topped KK doughnuts indeed.

There used to be many indie-owned Winchell's Donuts franchises back in the early 1980s in California but they eventually closed down.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

I guess Winchell's is still around in some form, but they've been on the decline for years now, and as far as I know all the ones in Washington have since closed. I seemed to recall they were pretty so-so back when we had them here.

[Stormwatch]

These donuts are great!

[BrianC]

It's probably a bit late to post this, but the best donuts I have had locally are from the Dutch market and Carlson's donuts. The Dutch market even has an area with a deep fryer where you can see them making the donuts.