No snack food pairs as perfectly with the changing temperatures of the fall season as a doughnut. There’s just something special about waking up, pouring a hot cup of coffee, and eating a doughnut while you stare out of your window and reflect on how lovely the world can appear, even as it’s rapidly coming to a violent end. Oh, is that just something that I do? Sorry.
While my morning/mourning doughnut ritual may sound depressing and stressful, Krispy Kreme is making it significantly better by dropping a new fall line of doughnuts that include three new Apple Cider Glazed doughnut iterations. Hooray!
This triple doughnut line is only available from now until September 19th — that means you have until this weekend to try these new doughnuts. There’s no legitimate reason to eat all of them in those few days, so we’re here to break down which are worth the trip and which you should ignore like we’re all collectively ignoring the fact that our planet is trying to natural disaster us out of existence. Sorry for the existential angst — now let’s get to the review!
Apple Cider Brown Sugar Kreme — Apple Cider Glazed Cake — Apple Cider Glazed
All three of Krispy Kreme’s apple cider-infused donuts are delicious, but they definitely aren’t all worth your time. So before you buy a dozen of all three, let’s separate the good from the bad so you end up leaving Krispy Kreme with a box of 12 dope limited-time doughnuts. Let’s begin with the good — the Apple Cider Brown Sugar Kreme Doughnut.
For these doughnuts, Krispy Kreme made a new special glaze from real Apple cider and spices and each bite provides a refreshing and comforting flavor reminiscent of the bitter, sweet, and subtly tart qualities of apple skin. The Apple Cider Brown Sugar Kreme features the cider glaze, a few stripes of candied apple flavor, and a light dose of fluffy and sweet brown sugar filling.
The doughnuts are already pretty moist, but that gentle injection of cream filling really helps to keep each bite bursting with flavor, and the brown sugar creme has a light and sweet profile that pairs nicely with the autumnal spices of the glaze.
It’s great, a definite must pick-up, and worth the trip to Krispy Kreme this weekend alone. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about the next entry in the lineup — the Apple Cider Glazed Cake.
Okay, maybe calling this doughnut “bad” is overkill, it’s not inedible. It has the same sweet and tart glaze as the cream-filled but it’s too cakey and thick and forces you to hyper-focus on the glaze, which tastes a lot more tart here without the brown sugar to balance it out. I found this doughnut a chore to get through, it desperately needs to be dunked in coffee or something to help even it out.
If the idea of an apple doughnut is unappetizing to you, this one will affirm your beliefs. Skip it.
That brings us to our final doughnut of the lineup, our ugly little friend — the Apple Cider Glazed Doughnut.
The ACGD, as I’m fond of calling it, is your basic Krispy Kreme-style old-fashioned doughnut, sure it looks weird and wrinkly, like a doughnut you’d find under a towel in the corner of a steam room, but it’s a massive improvement over the cake-version. The glaze covers the entire donut here, and the old-fashioned form-factor is smaller and thinner than the cake doughnut and it makes all the difference.
You won’t feel the need to dip this baby, and it isn’t so filling that you’ll feel guilty for wanting two. If you can’t get behind the idea of a cream-filled doughnut (you should really try it though, the Brown Sugar Kreme is amazing), this is going to be the ideal choice for you.
The Bottom Line
This weekend hit up Krispy Kreme and pick up the Apple Cider Brown Sugar Kreme doughnut or the Apple Cider Glazed before you can’t anymore. Skip the cake, it’s too thick and dry, even if cake doughnuts are your jam.