Krispy Kreme Strawberry Gloss

Product name: Krispy Kreme Strawberry Gloss
Purchase details: £1.50 for a 62g doughnut (Krispy Kreme Doughnuts)
Calories: 253 per doughnut
Country of origin: UK

I had a lovely e-mail from Krispy Kreme Rewards this week to say that they missed me, and offering me a free doughnut if I went back. Well, I didn’t need any convincing, so I thought I’d try a variety I’d not had for a while: the Strawberry Gloss. (For the record, my recent lack of visits has been down to having a stupidly large existing snack stash and a house to buy, rather than anything against Krispy Kreme!)

If memory serves me right, when this doughnut was first launched, it was part of a promotion with a women’s magazine, since the shimmery appearance of the topping looked like lip gloss. Unfortunately, my pictures just don’t do the original elegance of the treat justice, so you’re best looking at the website image to see what it looked like prior to me taking it home! The man who served me was lovely and warned me to careful as the gloss was ‘very sticky’, and advised me not to swing the bag around my head. I can honestly say I held it flat all the way home but it was no use...the majority of the topping stuck to the bag, as you can see!

I won’t say too much about the doughnut itself as it was basically an Original Glazed that had been ‘hand-dipped in a sparkling red berry glaze’.

The bonus of a lot of topping sticking to the bag was that it gave me an excuse to eat it with a spoon and get a proper idea of what it tasted like. Its consistency was like a gloopy gel and it had a deliciously sweet flavour with a hint of berry. It contained ‘strawberry compound’ which was mainly sugar but also had 27% strawberry listed on the ingredients. It really reminded me of ice cream sauce and, in terms of its sweetness levels, I felt it was on a par with fruity lollipops. The bloke who served me wasn’t lying either...even with a spoon, my hands ended up sticky!

Combined with the Original Glazed base, the topping added no additional aroma, and it didn’t have a huge impact on the flavour either. There was a slightly tangy element but it was the sugary doughnut itself that remained prominent. The smooth, gooey texture was a more noticeable extra but, to be honest, I preferred the purity of the plain doughnut as it felt less artificial.

On the basis that the Krispy Kreme Strawberry Gloss had all the qualities of the classic Original Glazed, this was another beautiful offering from the doughnut experts. The added berry flavour was a nice touch but I would have liked it to have played a bigger part.

Krispy Kreme, you may have missed me, but I missed you more...

Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 8/10
Taste: 9.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 8.75/10

Mrs. Freshley's Mini Donuts: Frosted

Product name: Mrs. Freshley’s Mini Donuts: Frosted
Purchase details: £2.50 for a 94g packet of six doughnuts (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 440 per pack
Country of origin: USA

It’s been a few weeks now since I reviewed the Crunch and Cinnamon versions of Mrs. Freshley’s Mini Donuts, but I’ve finally got around to trying the Frosted version too.

Distributed by Flowers Foods Speciality Group, I expected the coating to make them the heaviest variety, but they were actually lighter than the Cinnamon ones. However, they did contain the most calories!

The thick, generously distributed and very dark frosting looked like chocolate and, on reading the ingredients, I saw that it did contain cocoa but that its main ingredient was sugar. I loved how this had been allowed to fill the doughnuts’ holes, forming mini columns in their centres, and the contrast with the pale inner dough made the frosting look almost black in colour.

The product smelt very much like chocolate coated doughnuts as soon as I opened the purple-themed packet and I was hoping that the waxy-feeling coating would provide a Magnum-like crack. In reality, I liked the way the solidity of the frosting combined with the soft dough, although the two did just merge together rather than the frosting cracking apart.

Once again boasting a new and improved recipe, I was expecting the dough itself to remain unchanged. It certainly had the same good, sweet and doughy flavour, and this went nicely with the more bitter and chocolatey coating. However, I found that the dough felt pretty dry and had no spring to it, which was a shame. Thankfully, though, the smooth, cool frosting helped distract from this.

This was another decent experience with ‘long-life’ doughnuts although I’d definitely prefer a fresh one when given the choice!

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 6.5/10
Overall score: 7/10

Krispy Kreme Raspberry Chocolate Truffle

Product name: Krispy Kreme Raspberry Chocolate Truffle
Purchase details: £1.75 for a 59g doughnut (Krispy Kreme Doughnuts)
Calories: 372 per doughnut
Country of origin: UK

With the Krispy Kreme Choco Mania doughnut range coming to an end at the end of the week, I couldn’t not grab a Raspberry Chocolate Truffle whilst I still could!

I’ll let Krispy Kreme's website describe this offering: a ‘chocolate dough shell, dipped in dark chocolate icing, filled with a raspberry truffle kreme, topped with dark chocolate curls and finished with a delicate raspberry drizzle’. It certainly looked good on paper (well, screen!) and it looked just as appetising in the store’s display cabinet. You’ll have to take my word for it or have a look at the website's stock image, though, as the thick icing was so sticky it clung to the paper bag I transported it home in! I particularly liked the chunky chocolate flakes that sat atop the dark topping, and the glossy pink drizzle reminded me a little of lipstick.

Since there was a lot of sticky icing left behind on the packaging, I thought it would be rude not to tackle this with a spoon. And oh. My. Days. The nutritional information told me that 37% of it consisted of Belgian dark chocolate and, I must say, it was divine – just like a rich chocolate fudge cake icing.

The doughnut itself had a dark chocolate aroma mixed with a milder-than-normal sweet Krispy Kreme element. There was also a slightly tangy afterthought to this scent which came from the inner kreme. Speaking of which, I don’t think I’d ever seen a doughnut so full of filling – things got a bit messy when I cut the treat in two!

Bizarrely, when comparing the colour of my doughnut’s dough to the Peanut Butter Kreme, it became clear that it was the standard recipe rather than the chocolate one. This didn’t bother me since I do prefer the lighter version of the dough but it did mean my experience wasn’t of exactly the same doughnut described above!

Anyway, the brown kreme was light and chocolatey with a gentle tartness that was similar to some kind of berry chocolate torte. Combined with the richness of the chocolate icing, the hints of raspberry also reminded me of selection box chocolate fondants, although a much milder and less sickly-sweet version. Of course, the usual Krispy Kreme elements remained, and the chocolate flavours provided by the kreme, icing and flakes were lovely. As for the pink drizzle, this was only really for decoration. I know it was meant to taste of raspberry but, on its own, it was just sugary.

The texture was just as delicious as the taste and provided a fabulous combination of moistness, softness and smoothness.

All in all, this was a really indulgent doughnut – it felt more like a dessert than a cake. If you fancied a giant profiterole and ate this instead, you wouldn’t be disappointed!

Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 8.5/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 8.13/10

Krispy Kreme Chocolate Cookie Crunch

Product name: Krispy Kreme Chocolate Cookie Crunch
Purchase details: £1.50 for a 73g doughnut (Krispy Kreme Doughnuts)
Calories: 292 per doughnut
Country of origin: UK

I think the Krispy Kreme loyalty scheme is my new favourite! I received yet another free doughnut as a reward for filling in a short online survey so I decided to try again in getting the Chocolate Cookie Crunch.

This doughnut wasn’t earth-shatteringly innovative in that Krispy Kreme's website stated that it was a twist on the ‘popular’ Cookie Crunch. However, I’d had the older version a few years ago and enjoyed it, so I still wanted to see what difference its ‘chocolate dough makeover’ made. As part of the Choco Mania range, the ring doughnut also featured a ‘chocolate icing and cookie crunch’.

The Chocolate Cookie Crunch was the same in appearance as the Chocolate Iced – it simply had a darker dough and additional topping. I thought it looked great and the sprinkling of icing sugar was a nice touch too. On the downside, I found its delicious Krispy Kreme scent was a bit weaker than normal.

I had a little try of the cookie topping first. This was formed from large, black crumbs that looked like Oreos in style. Whilst crumbly, the cookie’s texture wasn’t crunchy, and I didn’t find it tasted of much either. Instead, the main chocolate flavour came from the icing which, the nutritional information showed, was identical to the Chocolate Iced's.

As a result, the taste of this doughnut was pretty much a repeat experience of the Chocolate Iced, although, all combined, it did seem to have a very slightly stronger chocolatey taste. However, as with the Peanut Butter Kreme, I found the dough tasted a little oily and not really like chocolate, so this additional flavour did seem to be coming from the cookie crumbs, despite their initial apparent blandness.

Where this doughnut differed most from the Chocolate Iced was in its texture. Whilst it didn’t interfere with the soft dough, the crumbly topping added an extra depth, and I loved the ever-present crispiness provided by the moist glaze too. Once more, I really enjoyed the juiciness this created.

All things considered, this doughnut provided a good mix of sweetness from the dough and glaze, and a pleasant chocolate flavour.

Appearance: 8.5/10
Aroma: 7.5/10
Taste: 9/10
Texture: 8.5/10
Overall score: 8.38/10