When I was in college in Washington, DC, my roommates and I would drive about 45 minutes into Virginia twice a month to stock up on fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
The chain, which opened its first location in North Carolina in 1937, has since expanded outside the southeastern portion of the US. Now, I’m just a short bike ride away from multiple Krispy Kreme locations in New York City.
Though I try not to go too often — I can’t eat doughnuts like I did in college anymore — I want to make sure I’m picking up the best flavors the chain has to offer.
So I went to my local Krispy Kreme and bought one of every type of doughnut they had in stock. Here’s my ranking of all 14 doughnuts, from worst to first.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in September 2024. Although many seasonal flavors return, item availability is subject to change.
Krispy Kreme’s maple-buttercream doughnut was way too sweet for me.
A limited-time seasonal variety, the maple-buttercream doughnut is a glazed yeast doughnut with a swirl of maple frosting on top.
None of the other doughnuts I tried had this type of frosting — most of the others had icings lacquered on, whereas this was piped on.
The frosting had the color and flavor of maple candy but tasted even sweeter. It was way too sugary for my liking, even by doughnut standards.
The oatmeal-Kreme-pie flavor had too much going on.
The oatmeal-Kreme-pie flavor was another seasonal variety. It was by far the most heavily dressed doughnut in the bunch. To be honest, it looked like it came from a fancy bakery.
This cream-filled option was topped with vanilla frosting, streusel, more cream, and a little oatmeal cookie. If you think that sounds like too much, you’re absolutely right.
Like the maple buttercream, this doughnut was cloyingly sweet.
I thought the strawberry doughnut with sprinkles tasted artificial.
The frosting on the strawberry-iced doughnut had a candy-like artificial flavor that tasted almost medicinal. It even turned off my 4-year-old, who loves pink things and sprinkles.
I only ranked it this highly because my 7-year-old said it was his favorite doughnut of the bunch.
I didn’t love the chocolate-iced doughnut.
When I pulled the chocolate-iced doughnut out of the box, I thought it looked fairly boring.
After taking a bite, I realized I didn’t love the icing. The flavor was on the sweet side, and there wasn’t much depth to it.
My kids thought sprinkles made the standard chocolate-iced doughnut better.
This doughnut was exactly the same as the chocolate-iced version but with rainbow sprinkles on top. In my kids’ eyes, this made it distinctly better than the regular chocolate-iced doughnut.
In my eyes, however, there weren’t enough sprinkles to make much difference in the flavor or texture.
The pumpkin-spice cake doughnut was a nice change of pace.
The pumpkin-spice cake doughnut was the only flavor I tried with a cake base, and its denser texture made for a nice change of pace.
I also liked that Krispy Kreme didn’t go overboard with the pumpkin-spice flavoring, which can be off-putting when it’s too strong.
This limited-time flavor reminded me of an apple-cider doughnut with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg, but it wasn’t as hearty or as crumbly as I’d like a cake doughnut to be.
The chocolate-iced custard-filled doughnut is Krispy Kreme’s take on a classic Boston cream.
I realized I’d never tried Krispy Kreme’s take on the Boston cream doughnut before — and it wasn’t bad.
The custard filling was creamy, on the thin side, and only lightly sweet. But again, I was unimpressed by the chocolate icing.
I enjoyed the chocolate-iced Kreme-filled doughnut.
The cream in this doughnut reminded me of the filling of a Twinkie — fluffy and very sweet. I liked that it kept the doughnut extra moist and sweet throughout.
The glazed lemon-filled doughnut was a pleasant surprise.
When I took a bite of this doughnut, I was surprised by how much I liked the lemon filling. It was closer in consistency to custard than jelly, and it had a nice citrusy zing to it.
I would order this again, even though I don’t normally love lemony desserts.
My kids loved Krispy Kreme’s cake-batter doughnut.
My 4-year-old said the cake-batter doughnut was her favorite of the ones she tried.
It was topped with cheerful yellow icing and rainbow dot sprinkles. I thought the cake-batter cream filling tasted more buttery than traditional cream.
It was a bit on the sweet side for my tastes, but I’d buy it again and give it to the kids to split.
The dulce de leche flavor on the salted-caramel-cheesecake doughnut was delicious.
The seasonal salted-caramel-cheesecake flavor is essentially a glazed doughnut topped with swirls of cream-cheese buttercream and dulce de leche flavoring.
Photos of the dessert make it look like it’s finished with salted-caramel crumbs, but the one I got had very little salted caramel — and what was there tasted only of salt.
The cream-cheese buttercream mostly tasted like the regular cream, but the dulce de leche flavor was delicious. It was rich, buttery, and salty, which went well with the sweetness of the glaze.
My 7-year-old rejected it as “too salty to be dessert,” but I’ll definitely look out for this variety again.
The glazed raspberry-filled doughnut is a classic for a reason.
The glazed raspberry-filled doughnut is one of my go-to Krispy Kreme orders, and it didn’t disappoint.
I knew what to expect: a delicious mess of goopy, tangy raspberry filling and the chain’s familiar glaze.
Some of the appeal of this doughnut may be nostalgia for me, but there’s a reason it’s a classic.
I loved that the spiced-apple-filled doughnut was topped with cinnamon sugar.
The seasonal spiced-apple-filled doughnut was the only one I tried that had cinnamon sugar instead of glaze on the outside.
Inside was an apple filling with a nice hint of warm spices. It tasted like an elevated version of a McDonald’s apple pie.
The original glazed doughnut was my favorite.
During my taste test, I learned you can’t go wrong with Krispy Kreme’s classics.
In my experience, the original glazed doughnuts always taste a bit fresher than the rest of Krispy Kreme’s varieties. They’re also perfect in their simplicity: just a sweet glaze on a soft, squishy, yeasty doughnut.
I wasn’t surprised I loved the original glazed doughnut so much — I’ve had more than a few in the past. But I was surprised none of the other flavors could top it. Even the kids loved it despite its lack of sprinkles.
This story was originally published on September 30, 2024, and most recently updated on July 7, 2026.
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