9 Discontinued Krispy Kreme Donuts We Miss Terribly

The original Krispy Kreme glazed doughnut may be the company's mainstay, and the "Hot Now" sign might be your draw, but the brand also brings in plenty of customers eager to try new limited-time flavors and seasonal offerings. Sure, some are misses, like the whole wheat glazed doughnuts or the hot sauce-infused idea. But other Krispy Kreme doughnuts are so delicious, we don't truly believe they won't stay on the menu.

So what about those temporary hits that do leave? Shouldn't those tasty morsels be given another chance? Many fans, and certainly we, believe there are certain flavors that deserve a second run. And so we'd like to make an argument for every Krispy Kreme doughnut that should make a comeback — and the sooner, the better.

The delightful refreshment of lemon flavor is what hooked us on Krispy Kreme's Lemon-Filled Doughnuts. The key to this lemony lovefest was that it achieved the perfect balance: it wasn't too tart, nor too sweet.

Like many of Krispy Kreme's popular items, the Lemon-Filled Doughnut (or a variation of it) makes sporadic appearances. For instance, a version was offered in 2018. A later iteration, alongside its promotional partner the Lemon-Glazed Doughnut, was introduced on May 12, 2020, but was discontinued just three days later. 

Then, in 2025, Krispy Kreme eliminated several mainstays: Original Glazed Blueberry Cake, Cake Batter, and the Original Glazed Lemon-Filled Doughnuts. However, this history of disappearance and return is actually good news for devoted fans. Given its pattern of coming and going, it's highly likely to be only a matter of time before this beloved doughnut once again takes its rightful spot on the menu.

For some of us, the holiday season officially kicks off when pumpkin spice takes a back seat to the sudden invasion of chocolate and peppermint. Usually, this flavor combo comes in the form of what's called peppermint bark — named in part for its texture, which resembles tree bark. Krispy Kreme banked on the combo's seasonal popularity when it introduced the Chocolate Peppermint Bark Doughnut in 2010.

This confectionery was different: the base layer was made from the chain's cake pastry rather than the brand's iconic doughnut recipe, but included all the flavors that bark enthusiasts would expect. Chocolate was baked into each bite, capped by red-and-white peppermint bark crumbles to give it a sweet-and-minty flavor. Given that peppermint bark is typically a winter holiday recipe, Krispy Kreme can be forgiven for not carrying the doughnut year-round — but no one would fault it for making Christmas come early and adding this treat back into the menu.

S'mores were no longer limited to a campfire when Krispy Kreme not only spawned a totally delectable doughnut but also a valuable brand partnership. The S'mores Classic Doughnut was introduced on National S'mores Day in 2021, giving Krispy Kreme and Hershey's chocolate the chance to make beautiful doughnuts together. 

Although there are many variations of the classic s'mores recipe, Krispy Kreme followed the original. The doughnut was made with a generous infusion of marshmallow cream and dipped in chocolate icing. And then, as if the pastry didn't already have enough sweetness in one mouthful, Krispy Kreme topped it with more marshmallow cream, extra chocolate icing, and some graham cracker crumbles to keep things campfire-treat authentic.

The s'mores doughnut has had an on-again, off-again relationship with the menu over the years. There was also a similar S'Mores Doughnut released as part of a campfire-inspired collection of 2015.

Krispy Kreme originally introduced the Oreo Dirt Cake Doughnut in 2015 as part of a line of pastries paying homage to summer nights spent around a campfire. It had cream filling with little itty bits of Oreo cookies. The top was dunked in milk chocolate to adhere more Oreo crumbles, and it had a cute gummy worm poking out.

The Oreo Dirt Cake Doughnut is only one version of a stuffed cookie doughnut that Krispy Kreme has rolled out over the years. In 2026 , customers were delighted with the Oreo Collection, a limited-time menu featuring the Chocolate Oreo Dream, the Golden Oreo, and the Oreo Cookies and Kreme doughnuts.

It's probably fair to say that Krispy Kreme, despite being a doughnut shop, has expressed a fair love of pies over the years. One need only look at a line-up of past flavors to confirm this. Key lime, cherry, and even chocolate cream pies have been a source of inspiration for pastries in the past. However, there was one tart-inspired yummy that not only tapped into people's love of pie but also aligned with the chain's reputation for evoking nostalgia: the Dutch Apple Pie Doughnut.

The rollout of this flavor came, unsurprisingly, during the 2019 fall holiday season as part of Krispy Kreme's "Easy as Pie" campaign. Meant to be a tide-you-over until Thanksgiving, the Dutch Apple Pie Doughnut practically burst at the seams with apple pie filling. It was then topped with caramel icing and streusel morsels. And just to make things pretty, a few drizzles of icing cross-crossed the crumbles ever so delicately.

A different, but similar version of the pastry ended up under the "Hot Now" sign back in 2014. However, that time, the fresh Krispy Kreme doughnut appeared in a spring line-up. Just goes to show you can't keep a good pie-inspired doughnut down, whether it's Thanksgiving or not.

As hard as it is to believe, there are actually some doughnut eaters who do not want a side of pastry with their bomb of creamy sugar. The pastry that fit that bill was Krispy Kreme's Key Lime Pie Doughnut, circa 2019. Filled with the brand's signature Kreme, the doughnut had key lime icing on top, decorated with a cute lime wedge gummy treat between two leaves. 

However, it wasn't the fancy dressings that made the doughnut a shoo-in for a revival. Rather, its more understated sweet taste, made possible by a dose of acidic tartness, gives us good reason to want the Key Lime Pie Doughnut to come back.

It wasn't the only version of the pie that Krispy Kreme created, though. In the summer of 2012, another version boasted the signature doughnut, stuffed with a tangy blend of key lime and Kreme filling, and topped with white icing and graham cracker crumble.

Krispy Kreme decided to do a mash-up in 2025, which solved the dilemma many lovers face: How to choose just one dessert. By combining one of its famous pastries with the flavors of cookies and cream and cheesecake, it created a three-flavors-in-one dessert for the price of a single doughnut. Sadly, the campaign for the Cookies & Kreme Cheesecake Doughnut only ran from April 22nd until May 5th that year. 

The tuxedo combo was snappy-looking, with half the pastry covered in white icing and the other half in the dark crumbs of Oreo cookies. And it oozed flavor from the inside out, thanks to an injection of cookies-and-cream and cheesecake flavors. 

Nowadays, Krispy Kreme does have a similar cookies and cream doughnut, minus the cheesecake. It'll do, of course, but there's a reason that customers loved the blend. Just sayin'.

No flavor evokes the essence of the county fair quite like the taste of cotton candy — so much so that even when you're not at the carnival, one bite of the treat people once called "fairy floss" sends you straight back to the midway. And that experience was just what Krispy Kreme hoped to capture when it released the Cotton Candy Doughnut in the fall of 2025. 

The doughnut even looked a little like the fluffy stuff, with its brilliant light-blue frosting, covered in sugar crystals infused with the taste of cotton candy. On top was a simple twirl of pink icing flavored like strawberry preserves. As one of the pastries in the Fall Fair Collection, this doughnut offered a more zingy burst of flavors than its counterparts: the Kreme Puff, Blue Ribbon Apple Pie, and the Caramel Churro Doughnuts. And while all of them surely tasted excellent, none of the others boasted the brilliant color scheme and flavor of the Cotton Candy Doughnut. And this is one of the chief reasons why it should return.

While the uninitiated may scoff at the idea of slathering pretzels with chocolate, those who've tried it know that few things beat that flavor combo — except for the Krispy Kreme Caramel Chocolate Pretzel Doughnut. The limited-time treat piped chocolate Kreme filling into the doughnut before topping it with caramel and a generous amount of crushed pretzel bits. Then, all those tasty ingredients were wrapped up neatly with a ribbon of caramel, laced up over the top of the salty crumbles. 

That monumental mash-up was one of three doughnuts in the Caramel and Chocolate Shop Collection (Caramel Chocolate Chip Cake and Dark Chocolate Caramel Kreme rounded out the trio). The sweet treats hit the scene in September 2013 in both the U.S. and Canada. And while the sweet-and-salty flavors in the Caramel Chocolate Pretzel Doughnut were only around for a short time, they definitely left a lasting impression.