the end of the great donut debate?

on a lighter note, i thought i would mention that i have been craving donuts lately. i have been hard-pressed to find a donut shop around here (i guess they are lost in the same place as the sonics. i mean really - what big city doesn't have a sonic???). needless to say, i am missing shipley's tremendously. but today while driving around doing some earrands for elizabeth, i ran across one! what luck! i was actually trying to find something to do, as the store i needed to partronize did not open for another 45 minutes. i also just happened to be straving because i didn't have time to eat breakfast. and, what made things even better, was that it was a krispy kreme. now, for those of you who don't know, i have had a long-standing debate going with some of the youth over which donut retailer is better - shipley's or krispy kreme. we even were trying to plan a trip to go to shipley's early one morning to get some fresh donuts and then immediately after venture over to tuscaloosa to get some fresh krispy kremes. i have always been of the opinion that shipley's are better. i thought today i would end the debate.

so, i entered the shop with a big smile on my face (and a rumble in my tummy) and made my selection (two chocolate covered cream filled donuts... this should settle things). i will explain my selection in a moment. i also tried one of their new beverages called a chiller because i figured i would need something to wash my donuts down with. apparently, krispy kreme decided it would be a great idea to have a frozen coffee drink. what a novel idea... no one's ever thought of a frozen coffee drink before. i paid for my items and headed out to the car to partake.

and here's what i thought (the verdict you have all been waiting for)... i was really, really pleasantly surprised! the donuts were extremely moist and much more cake-like than shipley's, which really have an altogether different consistency. also, they were much less greasy. the cream filling was extremely light and delicious. it did not taste sugary at all. i felt as though there was a whipped cloud in my moist cake. the chocolate covering was also light and wonderful... once again, not too sugary. it topped the cloud filled moist cake perfectly. my chocolate frozen drink tasted like frozen chocolate whole milk. mmm... delicious memories of frozen school milk. i expected to be sick after all of that, but i felt okay (well, a little sick later, but it wasn't that it was too sweet or too greasy).

overall, i give my krispy kreme selection an a+.

now to the bad stuff. my one big compliant was that there wasn't a very large selection of donuts and other breakfast delicacies. hence, why i chose what i did. i probably would have never gotten that in a shipley's. pretty much all they had was grazed donuts, cream filled, and a few (and i mean a few) fruit jelly filled. and this was a pretty new, very nice krispy kreme. where are the cinammon twists, the chocolate filled, the apple fritters, the blueberry cake, etc.? i was disappointed to say the least. the environment wasn't all that great in the shop either, but i won't hold that against them.

any way, i have to say that i was wrong that i didn't like krispy kreme. as for which donut shop is better, i honestly don't know! i love 'em both! it really depends what mood i am in. which do you like?

cheers from one happy donut eater,
jw