Dunkin' Donuts Vs. Krispy Kreme: The Ultimate Doughnut Showdown

Who serves better doughnuts, Dunkin' Donuts or Krispy Kreme? While Dunkin' Donuts has given its doughnuts little to no promotion in recent years, choosing instead to promote new products like breakfast sandwiches and coffee drinks, Krispy Kreme has always stayed the course and focused on what it does best: doughnuts.

Let's start by looking at the selection. On their website, Dunkin' Donuts lists a whopping 128 different varieties of doughnuts (including seasonal items) ranging from a vanilla berry shortcake variety to an Oreo cheesecake square doughnut. These obviously aren't all available at all times, but that's still very impressive. As for Krispy Kreme, 55 doughnuts are listed on their website, including specials. Even though that's only half as many as Dunkin', it's still a feat.

Now, on to the doughnuts themselves. Dunkin' Donuts' doughnuts arrive early in the morning via a truck, and more in-demand doughnuts are replenished via a second shipment in the afternoon. (Sorry, folks, but employees no longer wake up in the morning saying, "Time to make the doughnuts!"). As for Krispy Kreme, sadly, more and more shops have been resorting to trucked-in doughnuts, because it's much less expensive to make doughnuts off-site. However, there are still plenty of "factory" locations throughout the country, identified by their larger footprint and "HOT NOW" sign in the window. Clearly, a hot doughnut is superior to one that was fried and trucked in hours earlier, so major points to Krispy Kreme on that front.

As for taste tests, several have been done, with varying results. Esquire's put Krispy Kreme's original glazed in dead last, with Dunkin' Donuts faring slightly better. Krispy Kreme came out on top in a taste test by Cheapism, and Dan Ray found Krispy Kreme "vastly superior."

We're going to go out on a limb here that in a head-to-head doughnut challenge, Krispy Kreme is going to come out on top. But if you want to find out for yourself, there's only one way to do so, and it involves eating a lot of doughnuts.