We Taste Tested All Of Krispy Kreme's Donuts, And This Was The Best Flavor Hands Down

Krispy Kreme, the multinational chain that still uses the same donut recipe it first launched in the 1930s, has the bold name recognition that most brands can only dream of — or at least spend millions in R&D trying to replicate. You can probably conjure the image of a Krispy Kreme donut without even trying: a simple glazed ring that gleams like a bauble you can eat. And that treat only accounts for part of the picture. In addition to Krispy Kreme's aptly titled original donut, the brand also makes a ton of other iced, filled, and miniaturized offerings, to say nothing of its seasonal and limited-run sweets. But not all of those treats are as sweet as they seem. Metaphorically, that is — they all contain plenty of sugar.

To winnow the confectionary field, Chowhound ranked (almost!) every Krispy Kreme donut in order of worst to best. And only Krispy Kreme's original glazed cake (which, yes, diverges from its more famed yeast donuts) could claim the No. 1 spot. Now, some of the holiday or otherwise fleeting editions were not available at the time of our testing. But the thirteen options we evaluated should be the most easily sourced depending on your location, as they were not acquired from a bakery outpost, but rather an even more ubiquitous kiosk where they're delivered daily. Purists may demand fresher donuts. But the more practically minded will be heartened to learn that the original glazed cake variety delivers great taste, regardless of its provenance.

It may come as a shock that the Krispy Kreme donut of imagination –- the original glazed version –- did not claim our ranking's No. 1 spot. Just to get this out of the way, it didn't even come in the top five. No, Krispy Kreme's most recognizable item landed at No. 8 in our ranking. It obviously wasn't hot and fresh from the conveyor belt, but we did pop it in the microwave to approximate that ideal form. And even that brief nuking could not improve the original glazed's absence of flavor, nor its titular shellac's nakedly sugared taste.

The original glazed cake, on the other hand, was a superior riff on the original-original. It split the difference between light and dense, and it paired terrifically with the donut's best friend, a cup of coffee. Unlike our very last pick in 13th place, Oreo Cookies & Kreme filled, it was also absent any extraneous bells and whistles to merely muck it all up. The original glazed cake donut just better represented the best of what a Krispy Kreme can be, whether you're live at its NYC flagship or sampling one wherever it's delivered and sold.