Donuts Are Not A Monolith And Shouldn’t Be Treated As Such

Once upon a time I was a stoned 20 year old working at the Dunkin Donuts that once resided on Sherbrooke & Grand Blvd (RIP). 

I worked the overnight shift and this meant that I was around as the donut chef handled their business. As the old donuts were thrown away and replaced by the freshly made ones I’d seen drizzling in their freshly dressed glory, I was allowed to eat them. For free I may add.

I’ve never really been a skinny person and this job did not help. 

Eating a donut, or 5, at 3:30 AM after smoking a little sum summing, introduced me to a better donut reality. 

Even Dunkin Donuts is cracking when it’s fresh off the rack.

There’s so much more to donuts than the fast food brands, and I wanted to look into my recent experiences with the donut universe with you.

Krispy Kreme, Dunkin & Tim Hortons - The Fast Food Donuts

Let’s start with a baseline. 

Krispy Kreme is by far the greatest of this batch in Canada. 

These donuts come in a series of standard flavours. Various glazed options, that wheel-barrow one, powdered donuts full of processed tasting fruit jelly, Boston Creme & it’s variants, you know the regular spread. Occasionally you’ll get some seasonal treat like Pumpkin Latte or something which is a twist on a glazed donut that tastes a little bit different.

Overall these donuts are fine for the purpose. A good example is when you need to impress people you don’t really care about, like new colleagues or something. I greatly recommend this when weeded and you encounter 2 for one deals on UberEats.

Otherwise, the truth is, there are just better options out there. 

We’ll explore the three styles of luxury donuts I’ve encountered so far.

Homer’s makes sandwiches masquerading as donuts

NDG (in Montreal) is home to the fantastic new donut shop known as Homer’s.

Boasting a wide array of creative flavours, the maple bacon one being a favourite of mine, they have created the largest donuts I’ve ever had. They are basically single donut meals. Each flavour is unique and visually stunning, the dough is denser and real-talk it’s super filling.

I’ve tried about 75% of what they offer and loved all of them. Each glaze is unique tasting and the flavour options are creative. It’s a big value and you should definitely get these donuts for people you do care about, or ones you actually want to impress.

Be careful when you see a two for one deal on UberEats here, it’s risky to get this type of deliciousness in the debauchery hours of the night. I know from experience, waking up to two boxes of half eaten donuts. 

DoughNats creates petite donuts that come with creative twists

Heading in the complete opposite direction, my first thought about DoughNats is that they were smaller than usual donuts.

Now the level of detail that went into decorating each donut we tried was incredible. There was this pancake style one that had a little mini pancake on it and a tube of maple syrup to inject into the donut. These donuts felt like little art pieces.

They are meticulous in their design with really well thought out flavours. While Homer’s donuts feel potentially overwhelming in stature, DoughNats come off more like a fine delicacy. You should definitely get DoughNats for your boss, or someone you are trying to seduce. 

We had to impulsively stop on Decarie to get them. They are worth going out of your way to get. The next time you’re feeling like dressing up and heading out, these are the donuts for you.

I may be remembering wrong, but I feel like DoughNats and Homer’s are in the same ballpark with regards to density and flavour spectrum. 

Today I got introduced to a whole other side of donuts. 

Deux Becs brings the fluffy dough and flavourful fillings

The dough at Deux Becs feels like it’s on the opposite spectrum of Homer’s. 

It’s this light and fluffy donut that lets you easily gobble a few down before you start to question your life choices. These fine folk let us try the dough with no toppings and it’s still fire, super airy. But the toppings they do use just stand out in an amazing way. 

They have a Five Alive (like the juice) flavoured glaze that is the most amazing citrus donut I’ve ever had. They have an ube glaze and filling that tastes divine. They also offer traditional options like maple, chocolate and sprinkles.

Now the sad part is you need to go all the way to Brossard in order to get Deux Becs, but if you want to try the fluffiest donuts with the nicest pistachio flavoured filling you’ll try, it’s worth the trek.

These donuts are probably for the same people you’d get Homer’s donuts for, only you want to flex that you know what Ube is. 

The truth is, which of these donuts you’d choose to gift people says more about you than the donut places. 

I hope this was a helpful introduction to my views on donuts. 

Live Long and Prosper Everyone