Dunkin' Donuts

Why do donuts have holes

Archaeologists found petrified fried cakes with holes amongst the artifacts of a primitive Indian tribe.

Donuts first appeared in the 16th century as deep fried cakes known as olykoek by Dutch immigrants who then brought it to American soil. Legend has it how the hole-in-centre came to be is credited to a New England sea captain named Mason Crockett Gregory (also known as Hansen Gregory) and his mother Elizabeth, who made olykoeken for her son’s sea voyages. The centres of these donuts tended to not cook through the middle and to conceal this, Elizabeth would stuff nuts in the centre (hence one explanation for the name!).

Apparently, Captain Gregory didn’t like the nuts nor the uncooked centres, and during one of his voyages, the quick-thinking Captain impaled his donuts on one of the spokes of his steering wheel – and voila! The modern-day donuts was born!

Pros and Cons of Donut Culture

Pros of Donuts

• It makes you happy with the aroma and wonderful colors.

• Packed with energy eat one donut and you'll have enough energy to run a marathon.

• The stress relieving food.

• You can have fun while eating it.

• Makes you think. Why is there a hole in the middle?

• Lots of flavors.

• Time stops when you bite into a donut.

• They go missing very fast esp with friends. Strengthen friendship.

• Queue a long time at Raffles City. Strengthen friendship while waiting with friends.

• Make friends in the queue
  

• After queuing 2 hours, the inexpressible joy of finally having the DONUT FACTORY DONUT.

• Able to walk around with nose up with Donut factory box smiling.

• The perfect gift for girls from guys, represents all the good stuff about girls

• Donuts are cute

• Homer Simpson the hero of household names is a big donuts fan too.

• Donuts never leave that flaky annoying feeling in your mouth like some bread does.

• Donuts are like.. the symbols of bliss.

• Apple donuts are the best because they taste better than apple pies.

• Good donuts have a very very strong goal in life, that is to be the epitome of happiness.

• The wonderful aroma of freshly baked donuts coupled with the incredibly delicious colours- pink, white, browns- makes you happy and builds up anticipation as you wait in line for it.

• Packed with so much energy, one donut is all you need to have enough energy to run a marathon (or at least enough to compete with a McFlurry.)

• This deep fried piece of dough with sugar on the top is a stress relieving food.

• You can have fun while eating it (should you start from the side, tear it into half then munch on it, or bite it all around the sides first?)

• Allows you to contemplate on the meaning of life (this hole in the middle, are we all empty in the middle no matter how wonderful we look and feel sometimes?)

• Makes you think about the hole. WHY is there a hole?

• There are loads of flavours.

• Time stops when you bite into a doughnut.

• They got missing very fast especially with friends.

• It teaches you the art of strategy (split up your friends into groups to buy more boxes of doughnuts).

• There is a challenge in buying doughnuts, its like climbing Mount Everest. If you buy from Raffles City- Mount Everest, if you buy from that cheap neighbourhood bakery - its like climbing some hill in Singapore.

• The queues are incredible and you can boast about it. ("Hey I got a doughnut from DONUT FACTORY LEH. Yours? Huh... XXX donuts? Nice meh?")

• After queuing 2 hours, the inexpressible joy of finally having the DONUT FACTORY DONUT is YOUR best prize.

• Able to walk around with nose up with Donut Factory Box, smiling.

• Donuts are portable and you can stuff your face with it in less than 2 minutes (even if you queue 2 hours for it at least you can eat it fast!)

• Lunch times are never the same as you think hard on how to optimise your lunch hour break to get that coveted piece of dough.

• Braving the queues and successfully getting doughnuts for your loved ones will make them feel like a superstar.Its like the Hello Kitty Craze redefined (there are two queues and great queue management at Raffles City Doughnut Factory).

Cons of Donuts

• Too much good makes a bad.

• Creates "donuts" around your waist easily.

• Messy, white cream around the mouth.

• Embarrassing, white cream around the mouth.

• Diabetes is on the rise.

• Makes you think. Why is there a hole in the middle?

• Makes you hungry (I'm hungry now)

• Life ends when you finish your last donut in the box.

• They go missing very fast esp with friends.

• Missing classes to queue.

• Late for work.

• Leaving work early to queue.

• There is actually NO CONS.

• Too many bad donuts around.

However, the local snacks get forgotten

With the increasing number of donut-lovers in the world today, Singapore is no exception. We have more and more donut-lovers especially among the ‘sweet tooth’s. because of that, people do not mind queuing up for hours, sometimes even way before the donut outlet opens, in order to get some donuts for their family, colleagues, friends and even to savour by themselves.

This is becoming more extreme that it is feared that one day, our local snacks will become extinct. Already as it is, our local snacks are becoming less popular. Stalls selling local snacks such as Nyonya Kuehs, Tau Suan, Dumplings, Lotus Paste and many more are just a handful in Singapore. The diminishing number of local snack stalls is ‘compensated’ by the increasing number of donut outlets such as Donut Factory, Vinco the Donut Parlour, Summer House Donut, Sun Moulin and Missy Donut, just to name a few.

Taking a slice of the global Donut market

Top donut chains that originated from the America have been and are still entering the markets in Asia and other regions around the world. This has caused a fad in many countries worldwide. There is a rising demand for donuts in the world.

The donut is a very convenient snack that is especially suitable for people who are constantly on the go, like me and you. Some of the common donut brand names that are widely-known include Krispy Kreme Donuts, Dunkin’ Donuts and Mister Donuts. These chains of donut outlets are expanding to different parts of the world, causing people to queue for them despite having to beat the unpredictable weather and the ridiculously long queues.

The donut market globally is therefore increasing in size because more people are willing to fork out more money for these delicious treats. This is also possibly due to the improved standards of living in our world today.

Once seen as an unhealthy food, it is becoming more preferred and seen with a healthier light today because donut chains are tweaking their recipes to make them a healthier choice for consumers who are becoming more nutrition-conscience nowadays.

Similar to Donuts we have...

Cookie – comfort food for people of all ages, especially children as they enjoy sweet treats. Cookies have nice texture and a wide range of flavours for consumers to choose from.

Energy bar – for people who are health conscious but at the same time enjoy sweet foods. They can enjoy the energy bar without having to worry about the extra calories.

Donut places in Singapore and undiscovered places.

When talking about donuts, people will start discussing on where the best donuts can be found. Some places that I have compiled include Donut Factory at Vivocity, another outlet at Raffles Place, Missy Donut, also Krispy Kreme and Dukin Donuts, both which have yet to have flagship stores in Singapore. In addition, undiscovered places would be neighbourhood bakeries which sell really good donuts. To top it off, the donuts at Singapore Poly’s FoodCourt 6 are also one of the best donuts around.

Healthier alternatives to donuts

After running a search on donuts on wikipedia, I learnt that donuts are sweet, deep-fried pieces of dough or batter. The two most common types are the torus-shaped ring doughnuts and filled doughnuts, a flattened sphere injected with jam/jelly, cream, custard, or another sweet filling. A small spherical piece of dough, originally made from the middle of a ring doughnut, may be cooked as a doughnut hole. Also, the donuts are deep fried in oil or fat, thus making them rich in fats and calories. Healthier alternatives to donuts could be whole grain bread, baguettes, and other foods like cereal.

The Summer House Donut

The Summer House Donut makes use of bright and cheerful colours as part of their brand logo and this design is seen across its packaging as well as store concepts. The colours used – orange, yellow, blue, red and white – are bright colours that make one happy and are bound to whet up one’s appetite.

Also, it appeals to their main target group namely the young and the young-at-heart. These people are bound to remember the brand by the colours in the logo because the cheerful colours appeal to them very much. The graphic used as part of their brand logo is also very child-like and appeals to their customers.

Tag: http://www.summerhousedonut.com/

Mister Donut

Mister Donut is a donut brand name originating from Japan. They have a similar colour theme to that of Donut Factory’s that is orange and white. They make use of cartoon-like fonts and graphics, such as the donut with a smiley face, as part of their brand design, so that their target audience (the young and the young-at-heart) can relate easily to the brand and is thus attracted to them.

In one of their television commercials (TVCs), they make use of a popular celebrity who is a football player form the Real Madrid team to be part of the advertisement. This will entice fans of the player to purchase the goods, given the kind of emotion that is stirred up among the player’s fans. They also make use of cute cartoon characters in their TVCs to specifically attract the young and the young-at-heart. The usage of cartoon strikes an emotion and thus relates to their target audience.

Krispy Kreme

Krispy Kreme has become a household name in practically every household in America. A brand known to many people in different parts of the world, people are bound to have at least heard of the brand even though Krispy Kreme does not have a chain in their country. Their theme colours – red, green and white – have become synonymous with their brand name over the years. Their signature green tiled roofs and the heritage road signs at their outlets are part of how their customers remember them clearly.

Popular for their ‘Donut Theatre’ at their outlets, which is actually a glass window that lets their customers to see the entire donut-making process in the Krispy Kreme kitchen, customers know that they are ensured of fresh and high-quality donuts everyday.

Tag: http://www.krispykreme.com/

Dunkin’ Donuts

The main colours used in the Dunkin’ Donuts brand logo is pink and orange. Within the logo itself, there is a picture of a cup of coffee with smoke coming from the cup. The fonts used are also very simple. The coffee in the logo also signifies that they don’t only sell donuts, like most other donut outlets, but they also sell beverages to go along with their donuts. Their logo is evident in every form of packaging that they use, from the cup to the box.

They also make use of humour in most of their television commercials (TVCs). This enables people to remember their brand name easily, with the humour approach taken by them in their advertisements.

Tags: https://www.dunkindonuts.com/

Donut Factory

The colour theme for this brand is mainly orange. The brand name ‘Donut Factory’ is in white and made to be in simple fonts. The ‘O’ in the word ‘Donut’ represents a piece of donut with part of it bitten off.

The simplicity of the brand image accounts for easy recollection of the brand. The brand concept is applied throughout from its packaging to its stores.

This brand design appeals to its target users whose age ranges from as young as 4 years old to 35 years old.

The bright colours used in the brand attracts people from this target group, specifically because young people like bright and alluring colours. Furthermore, research has shown how bright colours easily whet one’s appetite.

Tags: http://donutfactory.com.sg/