10 Fun Facts About Krispy Kreme in Manila

I was just reading through the press kit of Krispy Kreme including some early articles and I noted some fun facts that I found interesting. I thought that I’ll share it with you.

1. The latest craze for doughnuts? Serving Krispy Kreme doughnuts at weddings. After a story ran in InStyle magazine’s special “Weddings” issue (spring 2002), couples began calling Krispy Kreme stores to place doughnut orders for wedding receptions.

2. Doughnuts trace their history to Dutch “fried cakes,” which were brought to America by early Dutch settlers. The cakes had nuts embedded in their centers, and early Americans combined “dough” and “nut” to make the word “doughnut”.

3. The hole in the center of the doughnut is credited to a young boy named Hanson Gregory, who in 1847, suggested to his mother that she put a hole in the middle of her “fried cakes” to ensure the cake was fully cooked in the middle.

4. Krispy Kreme doughnuts are formed from dough extruded by air pressure to form a perfect doughnut shape. The doughnut “hole” actually doesn’t exist at Krispy Kreme.

5. In 1933, Vernon Carver Rudolph, the founder of Krispy Kreme bought a doughnut shp in Paducan, Kentucky from a French chef from New Orleans. He received the company’s assets, goodwill and the rights to a secret yeast-raised doughnut recipe.

6. Vernon Rudolph founded Krispy Kreme in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and produced the first Krispy Kreme doughnuts on July 13, 1937. The first Krispy Kreme store was located on South Main Street in Winston-Salem in what is now called historic Old Salem.

7. Krispy Kreme’s most famous and best selling products is the hot, glazed, yeast-raised doughnut known as the “Krispy Kreme Original Glazed.”

8. ‘’It took us years to hatch this and we are happy that they decided on us. Perhaps it’s because our companies share the same values, the same long tradition and we are in the food business. They were put up in 1937, Max’s was established in 1945. We treat our chicken like they do with their doughnuts – complicated, but with tender loving care,’’ beams Jim T. Fuentebella, chairman of the Real American Doughnut Co. Inc. Both food firms also have ‘’secret’’ recipes that have sustained them for years and years. Krispy Kreme’s secret yeast-raised doughnut recipe and proprietary doughnut making machines have been continually copied but never approximated.

9. In the US, most stores are constructed with a long window between the customer area and the kitchen allowing the patrons to watch the operation of the doughnut making machines, which automatically produce rings of dough, yeast raise, bake, deep-fry, flip, and glaze the doughnuts. These stores have neon “HOT” signs to indicate when fresh hot doughnuts are available.

10. ‘’One thing that the mother company also had to understand about the Philippine market is that doughnuts here are round-the-clock treats, and not just a breakfast item like in the West. It is something that is shared among family and friends, a treat, a favorite pasalubong to bring home. That is why the stores have to be more cozy and gear it towards being a dining place for the family and the barkada,’’ explains Carolyn T. Salud, Real American Doughnut president. So, Instead of the brightly-lit stores and the tiled floors like the ones in the US, the Asian stores boast of laminated floors, cove lights and everything else that evokes warmth and coziness.

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