Saturday 17 May 2008

Just Say No to the KK

Krispy Kreme, that is. Look at these. That's supposed to be a cruller and a traditional style devil's food donut. I'm not sure what "tradition" that is. Also, I note that it's not a doughnut. Doughnuts are yummy. My advice on these donuts is "do not". (Yuk yuk yuk; yeah, I know, don't quit the day job.)

I happened to find myself in Woden today for lunch with a bunch of strangers - hi to the Aussie Bloggers' Forum folks! I had a lovely time, and since I needed to grab some groceries on the way home, I parked over near Coles. There's a Krispy Kreme outlet on the way. Now these have got a lot of press, and people seem excited about them, so I thought I'd give it a go. I had tried one of their standard glazed donuts once, and it was nasty - super sweet and seemed a bit stale and dry. But, well, maybe that was a bad one, and maybe it was a bit old.

Nope. I bought two donuts, and they were super sweet and seemed a bit stale and dry. I was especially disappointed with the cruller, because I love crullers and you don't get them in Australia. When I lived in the US (a scary two decades ago now) the local Giant supermarket and a number of donut shops had crullers. They have that same twisty fluted shape that you see in the picture, but the ones I remember fondly were unglazed, and they were rather like a choux pastry - moist on the inside, and partially hollow. This KK monstrosity has an interior like stale cake.

The devil's food one is slightly better, being chocolate flavoured, but it's still nasty. It's got a very similar stale cake texture to the supposed cruller. There's something lingeringly chemical about the aftertaste. I've had a bite of each one and the rest is going in the bin.

To add insult to injury, not only are they disgusting, but also outrageously expensive. It cost me $5.20 for two donuts! I could get a half dozen fresh choc-iced or hot cinnamon sugared doughnuts from a normal bakery for that. I'd have got more pleasure from my $5 by folding it into an origami boat and launching it on the lake.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think Krispy Kreme is vastly over-rated, especially for the prices they charge. Can't see what all the fuss is about ... triumph of marketing hype over substance, I think.