I tried every doughnut I could find at Krispy Kreme and ranked them from worst to best
September 30, 20240
A limited-time seasonal variety, the maple-buttercream doughnut is a glazed yeast doughnut with a swirl of maple frosting on top.
None of the other doughnuts I tried had this type of frosting — most of the rest were icings lacquered to the doughnut, where this was piped on, like on a cupcake.
It had the color and flavor of maple candy, but somehow, it seemed even more sweet. It was way too sugary for my liking, even by doughnut standards.
The oatmeal-Kreme-pie flavor had too much going on.
The frosting on the strawberry-iced doughnut had a candy-like artificial flavor that tasted almost medicinal to me. It even turned off my 4-year-old, who loves pink things and sprinkles.
It’s only ranked this high on my list because my 7-year-old called it his favorite doughnut of the bunch.
I didn’t love the chocolate-iced doughnut.
This doughnut was exactly the same as the chocolate-iced version but with rainbow sprinkles on top. In my kids’ eyes, this made it distinctly better than the regular chocolate-iced doughnut.
In my eyes, however, there weren’t enough sprinkles to make much difference in the flavor or texture. I also found they were on the mushy side.
The pumpkin-spice cake doughnut was a nice change of pace.
I realized I’d never tried Krispy Kreme’s take on the Boston-cream doughnut before — and it wasn’t bad.
The custard filling was creamy, on the thin side, and only lightly sweet. In terms of Boston-cream doughnuts, this one was on the airier side. But again, I was unimpressed by the chocolate icing.
I enjoyed the chocolate-iced Kreme-filled doughnut.
I’d never tried the glazed lemon-filled doughnut before. When I’m in the mood for a fruit-filled option, I typically reach for a raspberry-filled jelly doughnut.
However, when I took a bite, I was surprised by how much I liked the lemon filling. It was closer in consistency to custard than to jelly, and it had a nice citrusy zing to it.
I would order this again, even though I don’t normally love lemony desserts.
My kids loved Krispy Kreme’s cake-batter doughnut.
The seasonal salted-caramel-cheesecake flavor is essentially a glazed doughnut topped with swirls of cream-cheese buttercream and dulce-de-leche flavoring.
According to the photos I’d seen of this dessert, it’s supposed to be finished with salted-caramel crumbs. However, the one I got had very little salted caramel, and what was there tasted only of salt.
The cream-cheese buttercream mostly tasted like the regular cream, but the dulce-de-leche flavor was delicious. It was rich, buttery, and salty, which went really nicely with the sweetness of the glaze.
My 7-year-old rejected it as “too salty to be dessert,” but I’ll definitely look out for this variety again.
The glazed raspberry-filled doughnut is a classic for a reason.
The spiced-apple-filled doughnut was the only one I tried that had cinnamon sugar instead of glaze on the outside.
Inside was an apple filling with a nice hint of warm spices. To me, it tasted like an elevated version of a McDonald’s apple pie.
Unfortunately, these are only available through the beginning of October — or else I’d plan on having a few more.
The original glazed doughnut was my favorite.
During my taste test, I learned you really can’t go wrong with Krispy Kreme’s classics.
In my experience, the original glazed doughnuts always taste a bit fresher than the rest of Krispy Kreme’s varieties. They’re also perfect in their simplicity: Just a sweet glaze on a soft, squishy, yeasty doughnut.
I wasn’t surprised that I loved the original glazed doughnut so much — I’ve had more than a few in the past. But I was surprised to learn that none of the other flavors could top it. Even the kids loved it despite its lack of sprinkles.