Krispy Kreme Vs Dunkin': Which Chain Has The Better Glazed Donut?

Like so many people, I have very strong opinions about donuts. One of my most steadfast donut beliefs is that less is more. That is to say, there's a time and a place for a donut topped with an entire Oreo or a mountain of Fruity Pebbles, but there's rarely a situation where a plain old glazed donut is out of place. A good glazed donut is one of America's most beloved treats and one of my personal favorite sweet experiences.

Nothing beats a pastry from a small mom-and-pop bakery, but when that's out of reach, a chain glazed donut is the next best thing. I already put Tim Hortons' and Dunkin's donuts to the test, and now it's time for Dunkin' to go toe-to-toe with Krispy Kreme, specifically in the glazed donut realm. Using my professional expertise (read: I eat a lot of donuts), I'll judge both chains' glazed offerings objectively and fairly to determine which offers the better sweet, delicious bite.

As two of the nation's most popular donut chains, Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' are long overdue for a donut showdown. Will the chain famous for its fresh, hot donuts served right off the line climb to the top? Or will Dunkin' (more of a coffee maven these days) come out swinging for the unexpected win? The great David Lynch offers some sound, pastry-themed advice for how one should approach life and art: "There's the donut, and there's the hole, and you should keep your eye on the donut." But in the case of this taste test, I'll be breaking down the best and worst aspects of each donut — hole and all.

I picked up a dozen glazed from Dunkin' and Krispy Kreme and tried them back-to-back as soon as I brought them home. I visited each chain on the same day at around the same time (relatively early in the morning) to get them at peak freshness. Although Krispy Kreme is known for its iconic neon sign, aka "hot light," indicating when hot donuts are being served directly out of the oven, I deliberately got my Krispy Kreme order in when the donuts were at room temperature. This made the comparison fairer, considering Dunkin' doesn't offer hot, fresh-from-the-oven donuts.

I judged the glazed donuts based on factors like freshness, softness, sweetness, and quality. I was looking for all the hallmarks of an outstanding donut: a melt-in-your-mouth texture, plenty of vanilla-forward glaze, and a pillowy soft bite. I also tried some of the leftover donuts the following day to see how they stood the test of time and factored this into my judgments, albeit only slightly.

Price and accessibility (there are a lot more Dunkin' locations than Krispy Kremes) didn't factor into my judgments whatsoever. To keep this review fair and unbiased, I attempted to judge each donut based on objective factors rather than my personal favorite qualities. I ordered two different styles of filled glazed donuts at Krispy Kreme along with the plain versions, but Dunkin' didn't offer an equivalent filled glazed, so those options didn't factor into my final verdict. However, I did consider that Krispy Kreme has more glazed options than Dunkin'.

I like the look of Dunkin's glazed donut; it's tall and fluffy and has a slight orange tinge to it that hints at an eggy flavor. It really did have a potent egginess to it that paired well with a vanilla-forward glaze. However, the glaze was pretty minimal, but I was actually glad for that. Easily the most egregious aspect of Dunkin's glazed donut was that it felt extremely wet. And no, I don't mean moist — wet, as if someone ran it under the sink for a few seconds or gave it a quick dunk in the pool. The glaze was so wet that it kind of seeped into the dough instead of sitting on top of it. It wasn't as unappealing as it sounds, but it also wasn't a quality worth celebrating. I guess I'd prefer a soggy, wet glaze over a desert-dry one.

In an effort to overlook the sogginess, I got into the nitty-gritty of the glazed donut's texture. The dough was cakey and a little bit dry — a weird juxtaposition compared to the outside of the donut. Some bites felt a little drier than others, which I think was due to some large air pockets in the dough. It wasn't quite as soft as I was hoping for, although it did have a bit of a melt-in-your-mouth quality.

I would have liked to experience this donut hot and fresh, but that probably wouldn't be possible. Dunkin' doesn't make its donuts fresh in-store, and after tasting its glazed donut, that was evident. The texture of the dough was indicative of a previously frozen pastry.

Although I was sad to see no donuts making their way across the conveyor belt at Krispy Kreme, I was glad that I wouldn't be pitting a hot and fresh pastry against one that was previously frozen — that feels a little too unfair. Instead, I took my first bite of a perfectly acceptable, room-temperature glazed donut from Krispy Kreme. The glaze coated the dough in a thick layer, in a way that ensured every bite had an equal amount. There was a noticeable tinge of vanilla flavor in the glaze, but it was mostly a plain sugar taste. Even though the glaze and dough are clearly two individual aspects of the donut, with the glaze sitting on top of the dough in an obvious layer, they immediately meshed together when I took a bite, creating that melt-in-your-mouth texture that Krispy Kreme is known for.

The inside of the dough appeared dense and cakey, with minimal air bubbles, but it was much softer than it looked. It had a texture similar to angel food cake; moist, but still plenty airy. The dough had a slight butteriness to it, but none of the eggy flavor that Dunkin's version had. As weird as it is to say about a donut, I found it almost aggressively sweet, like I needed to take breaks in between bites to give my mouth a rest from the sugar overload.

I'll be honest, I didn't even know that Krispy Kreme offered a whole line of unique donuts. The plain glazed is just so iconic that it completely outshines anything else from the chain — and I can absolutely see why. Although I found the sweetness of Dunkin's donut to be a little less intense and more balanced, Krispy Kreme's glazed was easily the better donut. What sealed the deal was how delicate and soft the dough was. When it comes to a yeast donut, I think texture trumps flavor, and the melty-soft texture of Krispy Kreme's pastry can't be overstated. Although Dunkin's had a little bit more going on flavor-wise, its texture was somehow both too dry and too moist; in other words, remarkably unimpressive.

Krispy Kreme absolutely nails the ideal glazed donut with its buttery, pillowy-soft bite, blowing Dunkin's dense-yet-airy, moist-yet-dry donut out of the water. Once Krispy Kreme's donut was a day old, it became a little less melty and soft, but was far from dry and stale. Dunkin's, on the other hand, was somehow still just as soggy on the outside and much drier and cakey inside, like the texture of a low-quality muffin from the gas station.

All told, I think Dunkin's other donut flavors are the stars of its pastry lineup, and its glazed could use some serious work. As soon as I picked up Dunkin's soggy, wet glazed donut, its fate was sealed. Had its glaze been a little more substantial and similar to Krispy Kreme's, it still would have lost this donut duel — few things in this life are as good as a fresh Krispy Kreme glazed donut.