Sorry for the lack of posts – I was in DC most of last week for real job stuff and then got distracted by a Clinic concert and a friend of a friend’s circus. Part of me had wanted to toss a plain glazed through the gates of the white house lawn just to see what would happen. Lights? Alarms? Armed secret service dudes, etc. But instead I ended up at Starbucks eating a fairly moist and sweet Chocolate Glazed from Top Pot with an iced coffee.

Top Pot is small Seattle chain and, along with The Doughnut Plant and Voodoo, is really one of the few Doughnut shops furthering Doughnut culture – as opposed to hanging on by a thread of yeast dough like so many indie Doughnut shops faced with DD and KK infiltration. Almost two years ago – is this blog that old? – Blognut field-correspondent Beta Blognut reported on Top Pot and dropped near perfect scores on their Pink Feather Boa and Double Trouble Chocolate Cake. This of course was back when we still used a Doughnut rating scale before realizing that really all Doughnuts are pretty good and nothing ever received a bad score. But rating scale or no rating scale TP Doughnuts are tops and I was happy to find them in a Portland, OR ‘bucks last year. I assumed this was just a regional North Western situation, but after the DC encounter I did some Google-ing and learned the partnership’s gone national.

Apparently as of of April 8th Top Pot has reached Starbucks in all 50 states, replacing the corporate coffee monster’s really fatty and really just-OK Doughnuts. And I’ve got so many questions. Did TP give up their recipe? Do they fry them in Seattle and Fed-Ex all over the country? Maybe use regional bakeries like ‘bucks does for certain products? I’m waiting to talk with the folks at Top Pot for the details so stay tuned. Here’s a shoddy camera phone pic:

While I’m in DC for a few days Field Correspondant Beta Blognut has left us with arguably the most unappetizing photo I’ve ever seen. And is that a horseshoe crab?

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Judging by the fact that our free summer drink and Doughnut contest only received 18 entries, I’m guessing either, 1) pairing drinks wtih Doughnuts is too hard, or 2) one free Krispy Kreme Chiller plus a few Doughnuts isn’t enough to motivate contest participation and this contest was probably stupid. But either way, thanks to those of you who entered. I’ve listed the winners below and will be contacting you shortly for your mailing addresses.

Chels - Strawberry-frosted and champagne

Christina - Chinese five-spice cake yeast doughnut, glazed and sprinkled with finely chopped cashews and white hot chocolate

Karen - Grape Jelly Donut with sweet peanut butter shake

Leslie - Minty smoothy and a bourbon cream-filled donut (Mint Julep theme)

Royal Pac-man - Munchkin and espresso

To get all of us Doughnut eaters in the summer spirit, Blognut is giving away coupons for Krispy Kreme’s new Caribbean Chiller. It’s a summer-y frosty fruity-type drink involving tropical flavors like pineapple and mango and not quite as tropical flavors like orange. The drink comes either creamy or frozen and is meant to be paired with KK’s seasonal Caribbean Kreme Doughnut - reviewed here - which is why all you have to do to win is comment on this post with an inventive and/or delicious sounding Doughnut and drink pairing. An example might be an Oreo topped Doughnut paired with whole milk. Or feel free to just name your favoriate coffee and Doughnut combination (ie, black with an old fashioned). Five lucky winners will receive a coupon for a free Chiller, and our top three choices will also receive coupons for a free dozen of Krispy Kreme’s original glazed Doughnuts.

Only one submission per reader please. The winners will be announced Saturday, May 3rd. Good luck!

My parents live in the country outside of Charlottesville, VA and there’s this situation where these cows graze on their property even though they don’t own any cows. Mom sometimes brings them celery but while visiting over the weekend it seemed like a good time to see if cows like Doughnuts. More specifically Spudnuts. Normally I wouldn’t waste my favorite all-time Doughnut on a cow but since a fresh dozen found its way into our hands while the remainder of the previous day’s batch sat neglected, I went for it. I’m hoping this is OK with PETA.

Here’s how it went down:

Cow approaches Spudnut.

Cow goes for it.

Spudnut in cow’s mouth.

Cow doesn’t like Spudnut and walks away!

Today I was sweating and partially miserable on the subway platform which could only mean one thing - summer-themed Doughnut season is here again. To honor the climbing temp, retro-ish North Carolina Doughnut goliath Krispy Kreme has released a Caribbean Kreme variety (shown above in unintentional dramatic lighting) offering that rare union of Doughnut with tropical flavor. The CK follows Krispy’s basic filled Doughnut model: raised dough covered in white frosting and in this case short-cake crunch which looks and tastes like a better version of the crumbs on those strawberry shortcake Good Humor bars. I had my reservations about the mango, pineapple and passion fruit filling - thoughts of overly sweet, brightly colored beach drinks, etc - but it’s actually pretty good and thankfully doesn’t involve coconut. It kind of tastes like a really creamy tropical smoothie.

And speaking of smoothies - KK’s also created a Caribbean Kreme Chiller drink to pair with the Caribbean Doughnut. It comes either creamy or frozen and stay tuned ’til next week when we’ll be giving away coupons for FREE Chillers and FREE Doughnuts. Now I’m off to Virginny for a few days to see mom and dad and eat Spudnuts.

Field Correspondant Beta Blognut returns with part two of his Asian Donut expose. Check out part one here, or just scroll down. And for those who’ve been asking, I’m in the process of updating my Donut Shop links and should get to all the recent Reader Suggestions shortly.

A line runs down the block at this famous soup dumpling shop in Shanghai and the kitchen is cramped full of cooks grabbing at a pink mountain of raw pork.

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Green Donuts A Bad Thing

“The sixth green at Carthage Municipal Golf Course will likely play a bit differently the rest of the year thanks to some careless person or persons in a vehicle.”

“Someone drove a vehicle onto the sixth hole green at Carthage Municipal Golf Course and spun out leaving ruts (read: Donuts) in the grass that will likely affect play for the rest of the season, according to course officials.”

Read the rest of the story here.

I intended to post last night but instead ended up at the Handsome Furs show at The Bowery Ballroom, which was INSANELY good and Dan Boeckner can’t write a bad song. But thankfully Blognut field corresponent, Beta Blognut, has stepped in with Shanghai Surprise #1. And stay tuned for more of Beta’s Asian Donut reporting in the coming weeks.

Beta Blognut finds himself in the Olympic host city of Beijing. Almost the first thing you see coming from the airport is the vaguely donut-shaped Olympic Stadium, also known as the bird’s nest. Construction goes on at all hours of the night, and Beijing’s skyline is filled starbursts of experimental architecture, lording over where hutongs once huddled. Rem Koolhaas’ controversial CCTV building continues to garner press. The cantilevered, 230-meter towers have no right angles, the resulting structure instead that of a loop. Critics and proponents alike call it “The Twisted Doughnut.”

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Ever wonder what it would be like to store your digital information inside a Donut? Behold, Donut flash drives.