Krispy Kreme Big Apple Donut, An Honest Review from Someone Who Tried It

In Times Square, you can find plenty of unique experiences involving familiar foods, including custom-printed M&M’s, milkshakes blended with Hershey’s newest limited-time offerings, and a one-pound Reese’s Cup stuffed with your choice of mix-ins—the last of which I also picked up for a Sporked review. (Stay tuned to find out how that sticky situation went down.) Since I was already in New York City for Toy Fair, I decided to check out some of this foodie bait for myself.

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To start, I headed over to Krispy Kreme‘s flagship store in Times Square for their exclusive “Big Apple” donut. This donut is filled with Red Delicious-flavored creme, dipped in a red mirror glaze, and plugged with a pretzel-stick stem plus a leaf made of royal icing. Now that we know what’s in this pastry, let’s find out whether it’s worth the significant upcharge.

Times Square Exclusive!

Krispy Kreme Big Apple Donut

Pros: The apple-flavored creme is light, super accurate, and vastly preferable to the apple pie filling found in K.K.’s standard donuts. The pretzel stem and icing leaf bring a new texture to the overall experience to boot. While the super-sticky red mirror glaze screams apple, the only fruity taste comes from the filling. All in all, this is a perfect gimmick for a Times Square tourist trap: Solid execution of a cute concept perfect for sharing on social media.

Cons: While the price has fluctuated, the Krispy Kreme Big Apple is always around $10 a pop—three times the price for a standard Krispy Kreme single. Depending on your budget for silly nonsense, that could be a major con; I would have rated this higher if it were less pricey.

Additionally, my Krispy Kreme Big Apple did not come in the pictured commemorative box! I looked up a few Instagram reviews that went live the same day I ordered my donut; since those donuts were delivered in the commemorative box, I have to imagine the store temporarily ran out—just my luck. At ~$10 a pop, you don’t want to get shorted on any part of this experience.

Credit: Griffin Parker / Krispy Kreme

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

Is the Krispy Kreme Big Apple donut worth the money?

Anyone who isn’t delusionally wealthy and/or the world’s biggest apple fan will be entirely whelmed by the Krispy Kreme Big Apple. The real problem is that I had a better, cheaper donut earlier that day. The Blueberry Lemon with Oat Crumble from Dough Doughnuts blows the Big Apple out of the water in both size and flavor at just six dollars a pop. Sure, that’s still a hefty pricepoint for a Midwestern boy like me, but compared to the ~$10 alternative? If you’re visiting New York City, here’s my professional advice: Grab the Krispy Kreme Big Apple once, ideally with a group to share, just to say you’ve done it (or for Instagram clout). Grab a Dough donut every chance you get. They’ve never steered me wrong.