The Grocery Store Maple Donut You Should Buy On Repeat

If you've had enough pumpkin spice and apple cinnamon this season, allow us to turn your attention to a more underrated fall flavor: maple. Although maple syrup is technically harvested in the spring, it's often associated with the fall season because it pairs exceptionally well with autumnal spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. From maple cinnamon sticky buns to maple chai, there are plenty of maple-forward recipes to scratch that itch for something new. But if you're looking for something classic, head to the grocery store to pick up our absolute favorite maple donut: Giant Eagle's Maple Iced Cream-Filled Long John.

This donut scored the number one spot in our ranking of seven grocery store maple donuts for many reasons. It's a long john — a rectangular, bar-shaped donut — and it's filled with a delicious thick cream, similar to custard. Our writer called this the pièce de résistance, but the sweet maple icing on top — which is decorated with thin white icing stripes — was also a highlight. The donut itself is soft and airy, and overall, it was surprisingly impressive for a supermarket bakery. Even if maple isn't your donut flavor of choice, you're going to want to give this one a try on your next visit to Giant Eagle.

While there isn't much online fan commentary about Giant Eagle's maple long johns, we did find a few shoppers who felt the same as we do about them. One shared that "the best [long johns] [they've] ever eaten were from Giant Eagle and had white cream filled with rich maple frosting!" Another fan wrote on a Giant Eagle Facebook post that their favorite is also the cream filled with maple frosting, so clearly, we aren't the only ones who feel this way. 

In that same post, fans offered positive reviews about the store's donuts in general with some fans calling them "great" and "the best." But our experience taste testing the store's other donuts makes us think that the maple long john might just be the best donut the store offers.

In our ranking of 12 grocery store bakery donuts, Giant Eagle's classic offerings were far from first place. Its chocolate iced donut came in tenth place, while its white iced donut with sprinkles came in eighth. The highest-ranked Giant Eagle donut was its white iced cream-filled long john, which came in seventh, so perhaps the long johns are where the grocery store truly shines. At the end of the day, donuts are subjective, so it'll be up to you to determine whether the store's maple long johns are really its best offering. But if you ask us, the answer is a resounding yes.