Synergy: coffee and donuts

Another lighthearted posting today instead of the more philosophical stuff I was blabbing about last week or so...

Before going to work today, I stopped to fill up the gas tank of my car and realized I had a coupon for a free cup of coffee at the little convenience store attached to the gas station. This place also has a little stand that sells Krispy Kreme brand donuts (or doughnuts as the company prefers to label as). Just FYI it was a 20 ounce cup of "Sumatra" brew with a couple of chocolate frosted Krispy Kremes. I always like to buy one donut for now and one for later.

While on the drive to work, I sipped some of the coffee, and while it wasn't absolutely terrible like some convenience store coffees, it wasn't exactly first-rate. BUT... when I got to work I decided to eat one of the donuts while drinking the coffee to keep the coffee from sloshing around my stomach giving me a mild tummy ache. Wow, what a revelation! A good donut really makes mediocre coffee taste incredibly good!

For those of you who don't know, here in Gainesville, Krispy Kreme has long ruled the roost. And I can understand because I think Krispy Kreme makes the best donuts bar none! Something about that tiny little batch of dough and grease that is just so full of tasty sweet goodness! But recently a couple of Dunkin Donuts have opened up in town to compete. I've been up in the northeast where Dunkin Donuts is just crazy busy with customers. In the middle of the afternoon there were people sitting there eating donuts and drinking coffee like it was a weekend morning.

Well, I've read that Dunkin Donuts is the biggest seller of coffee in the US. So I couldn't wait to try their coffee at these new stores. However, I was pretty disappointed. I don't think I'll be buying their coffee all that often, I just didn't feel that the brews had very much body or flavor. Even their lighter roasts don't have the brightness I would expect though I have to give them decent marks on acidity. Anyhow, it got me to thinking, "Why is this place so popular?" I didn't think the coffee was all that good. But it must be due to the synergy -- when the whole becomes greater than merely the sum of the parts -- of coffee plus donuts.

My experience today was that mediocre coffee was elevated to a new level when you add in a great donut. So perhaps it is the synergy of coffee and donuts that accounts for the massive amount of coffee sales that Dunkin Donuts generates. Now I personally prefer Krispy Kremes, but I do like some of Dunkin Donuts varieties and they are generally very delectable. So next time I am in the neighborhood, I think I will conduct the experiment of combining their coffee with their donuts.

Oh, and for you folks that live close to me, let me also recommend Donut Connection. I was just googling it to give you the location, but I was blown away by learning that it is actually a national chain with stores all along the east coast of the US and stretching to Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota up north. I thought it was a stand-alone local store, but it's actually everywhere. Anyhow, the donuts there are also very good on par with Dunkin Donuts, and I actually liked the coffee better too. Reading further, I see their business model is a business cooperative, somewhat different from the typical franchisor or company owned store models. Anyhow, the donuts at the Gainesville store are good. It's located in Timber Village at 5205 NW 39th Avenue just next to David's Real Pit BBQ.