I grew up in the heart of Krispy Kreme doughnut country, Kentucky. I remember regular visits to the mecca of all that is sweet and greasy, walking in when fresh doughnuts were just up out of the machine and just breathing the air. It was one of the few places I could buy a doughnut that wasn’t glazed (one of my weaknesses) because they made and glazed them right there.
But for the last three and a half years, I have to get my Krispy Kreme haphazardly. Not fresh, but in boxes. No more unglazed doughnuts. It’s my sacrifice for the country as I move from place to place with my military husband, all these Krispy-Kreme-free uncivilized territories like Connecticut (where Krispy Kremes are rare and expensive) and Hawaii (where I’d have to swim 75 miles to get to the only one here). Tim Horton’s — fegh.
The Story Behind The Doughnut
According to legend, Vernon Rudolph of Paducah, Kentucky, won the recipe for Krispy Kreme doughnuts from a New Orleans baker — believable if you’ve tasted beignets at the French Market as well as Krispy Kreme. He started making them in the early 1930s, traveling a delivery route on his bicycle to deliver them throughout town. The business rapidly grew, and Rudolph moved his headquarters to Nashville, then to Winston-Salem, and finally sold out to Beatrice Foods. Franchisees got together in 1982 and purchased the company back, bringing its true home back to Winston-Salem, and today it’s a publicly-traded company.
Krispy Kreme is not advertised through traditional venues like television or newspapers. Word of mouth is their primary sales technique, and there are good reasons for that. Few people dislike Krispy Kreme, and — well, let’s just say I am not the only Krispy Kreme nut.
These doughnuts are exceptionally light in texture, and the glaze is a perfect match for the flavor. They are not good for you — between 4 and 7 grams of transfats, and 200 calories in their Original Glazed (half of those fat). But I don’t eat doughnuts as a health food; I eat them because they are Good.
Proper Accompaniments to the Krispy Kreme Glazed
Krispy Kreme is the perfect doughnut for fresh black coffee dipping. It holds together well, and the sugars in the doughnut make adding anything to your coffee a waste of time. Pure Kona is too strong for the doughnut, I’ve found, but a good 10% Kona mix, especially when blended with an ordinary Colombian coffee, is perfect. If you’re not a coffee fan, they’re also great with milk, though room-temperature milk is better than cold milk. I have no idea why.
There are those, however, who think a burger and bacon are better with the Krispy Kreme. The Gateway Grizzlies, a minor-league baseball team from the St. Louis area, serve up a Krispy Kreme burger called “Baseball’s Best Burger” — a Krispy Kreme doughnut sliced in half, with a burger, sharp cheddar cheese, and two crisp bacon slices between the halves. It’s 1000 calories of sweet and savory goodness, and they sell like crazy.
My Krispy Kreme Addiction Is Not An Isolated Disease
Krispy Kreme sells billions — yes, billions — of doughnuts every year. They make about 5 million every day, and the chocolate they use for specialty doughnuts each year would fill two Olympic-sized pools.
And the really good news: they’re expanding internationally. The first overseas Krispy Kreme opened in Sydney, Australia, in 2003. Today, there are locations in the UK, Kuwait, Mexico, South Korea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, The Philippines, Japan and the United Arab Emirates. There’s no doubt about it; Krispy Kreme is set for world sweetness domination. Mmmm.
