Grocery Store Bakery Chocolate Donuts, Ranked Worst To Best

There are few situations in life that can't be made better with the presence of a chocolate donut. The popularity of these fudgy confections means there are plenty of options out there to ensure a prime pastry moment for everyone's particular taste. But the freshest by far are the chocolate donuts found in grocery store bakeries ... or at least they should be. For the best and worst grocery chain bakeries of all sizes, having donuts baked in-store means there's new stock daily. Sometimes, even the prepackaged bakery donuts seem fresher than the national brands.

That doesn't mean every grocery store bakery treats its chocolate donuts the same, however. It's important to know if you're getting your money's worth with a grocery store chocolate donut purchase, and I couldn't remain ignorant forever about exactly which chain's bakery section does the best job. I put my stomach and my taste buds through their paces to find out and enlisted my donut-tasting team (my kids) to help keep my judgment sound.

Since both chocolate iced and chocolate cake are available at the standard in grocery store bakeries, I gathered both types from as many grocery store locations as I could find that have a bakery and carry chocolate donuts. Then I stacked them all up in order of enjoyability, flavor, and freshness to give you the benefit of a sugar-laden, carb-maxxing experiment.

Kroger must think very highly of its chocolate-coated donuts; a dozen pre-boxed cost more than a full dozen of the fresh donuts. I couldn't find the all-coated donut set when I shopped, so I picked up a mixed set that included four of the oversized chocolate-encrusted donuts nestled among four powdered and four crumb-coated donuts. It turns out they're the ones you should avoid from this sugary grab bag — and whatever you do, don't buy an entire box.

If this were just a blown-up version of a smaller chocolate-coated donut, it might stand a chance against its bakery brethren. As it stands, the dough is too chewy and contains a strange spiced flavor, as if it's been borrowed from another recipe. The chocolate coating melts too quickly, making a mess on your fingers and on the other donuts in the package. Saddest of all, the flavor of the coating is lacking, as if it's not quite chocolate enough to qualify as a full-blown frosting. Add all these negatives together and you have the equation for one major zero of a donut as a result. That's grocery math you'd be wise to steer clear of.

What is there to say about a chocolate iced donut from Albertsons that hasn't been said about all the other chocolate iced donuts in the world? For starters, I could say that it's a decent try at a classic combination that doesn't quite cut the mustard. It has all of the elements you would expect in a chocolate-frosted yeast donut, but every aspect struggles to be better than it is, like this bake just can't get its act together.

The untold truth about Albertsons' chocolate iced donuts is that they can't hang. The icing that should be rich and chocolatey has a tangy underbite that feels entirely out of place. The texture of the dough is a bit claggy, as "The Great British Baking Show" judges love to say. And there's an undeniable note of greasiness that overtakes the entire bite, which makes it unworthy of a second bite. What you end up with is a second-rate donut that you'd eat around if you saw it in a full dozen and knew what you were in for, but would probably go for it if it was the last donut in the box.

The only chocolate donuts I could find available at Sam's Club were a set of five frosted chocolate donuts topped with sprinkles included in a 20-count mixed donut tray. Far be it from me to let extra donuts keep me from trying their chocolate cohorts. I picked up the whole package and zeroed in on just the chocolate frosted yeast donuts, though there was a cookies-and-cream filled Bismarck in there that looked pretty tempting. But the test was strictly for chocolate donuts, not chocolate-accented donuts, so I kept my eyes on the prize.

The dough is more biscuit-like and savory than expected, and far too chewy for my taste. The frosting also has an artificial chocolate flavor that cuts through the other elements. It's disappointing but not entirely surprising, since Sam's Club doesn't appear to make these donuts on the premises. Having shelf-stable (not refrigerated) baked goods requires extra add-ins to maintain freshness, which are likely to impact flavor and consistency.

There are Sam's Club copycats that are better than the real thing, and then there are these sub-par donuts that can't cross the finish line. At almost $18 for 20 donuts, you should expect a better product. Even the artfully applied sprinkles couldn't redeem this one.

You want a chocolate cake donut to be tender and moist, similar to a slice of cake, since the fluffier, yeast-based dough isn't used in this type of pastry. A Kroger chocolate cake donut certainly appears to be capable of playing by those rules ... from the outside, at least. But once you get past the seductive glazed appearance and rich brown hue glossed over with liquid sugar and give it a taste, you realize that this promise of a fulfilling donut goes unrealized.

How does a donut with so much potential fall so short of the standard? Largely due to the lack of chocolate essence. The cake itself was moist and dense, as one of my trusted tasting associates pointed out. But we both agreed that there just wasn't enough chocolate personality to make this donut worth the bite. It would be easy to write it off to the freshness level, if only the donut hadn't been so darn spongy. If Kroger could ramp up the chocolate factor here, it might have a true winner on its hands.

If you like your donuts looking deceptively small, dry, and generally unappealing, has Albertsons got a chocolate cake donut for you. I overlooked it twice before I found it on the bottom rack; it looked like an overcooked buttermilk rather than a chocolate cake donut. The glaze was meager and the dough looked to be more than a day old. Trooper that I am, I grabbed one of those suckers anyway and put it in my bag.

It turned out that looks were deceiving in this particular instance, and waiting inside that crusty raisin shell was one of the softest, most densely packed, intensely delightful chocolatey doughnut interiors on the planet. It was tender without being crumbly and chocolate-forward without being cloyingly sweet. This was the best surprise and most flavorful unadorned donut of the bunch, and I'm glad my sampling team and I gave it a chance.

My narrow opinion before tasting them was that all of the mass-produced mini chocolate-coated donuts, like the ones Walmart stocks as a Freshness Guaranteed multi-pack roll off the same factory assembly line. If they don't, they at least adhere to the same disappointing formula in their respective conveyor belt-driven production centers. I know; I was surprised by how strong my feelings on the subject were, too.

But the results of this donut-fest smacked my eyes wide open. The Freshness Guaranteed version of a chocolate-coated Hostess Donette Gem looks similar enough to pass for the brand-name version, but it comes with much a slightly fresher flavor hiding under a softer chocolate coating than I expected. The coating was stable enough to stay on the donut rather than sliding onto my fingers or adhering to the other donuts, a plus for a product that's likely to sit on a table at a potluck or office lunch event. Before this taste test, they wouldn't have been my first choice. But now, I'd easily give them a second go.

One of the sweetest aspects of Walmart's Freshness Guaranteed chocolate iced donuts is that you can buy a two-pack of generously-sized treats for just about two bucks. You only get a single puny donut from other grocery store bakeries for that price. But what good is a decently-priced donut if it doesn't hit the spot taste- and texture-wise? It's nothing but a box of wasted ingredients and a wad of misspent money, which makes it extra-crucial for Walmart to deliver the goods.

And deliver the goods, Walmart does. This generous bake offered smooth icing and fluffy fried dough that didn't taste greasy or overly sweet. It's one of the most balanced examples of a yeast donut topped with chocolate icing I could find in my vicinity. My cohorts agreed with my assessment. The best part of this purchase — aside from the donut itself, of course — is that just as you've discovered how delicious the first one is, the second one is staring up at you from the box, chiding you with a silent, "See?" And lucky you, you have another one waiting to be devoured.

There's a little surprise left in the donut world after all, as this tasty number will attest. Kroger offers a plain cake donut adorned with a wreath of chocolate icing that hides a bold bit of flavor inside a totally unassuming treat. You might think you're sinking your teeth into just another grocery store donut from the bakery section, but you're actually biting into a sneak attack on your taste buds that will leave your tongue befuddled in the best possible way.

What is it that makes this cake donut with a clean crown of cocoa-based cream on top so distinctive? My fellow testers detected a hint of something spicy; when we put our collective tastings together, we realized that the base donut has a hint of pumpkin spice to deepen the flavor. That alone would be pretty special, but the fact that it infuses a delightful texture with a little bite to balance out the sweetness of the soft icing helped it feel like more than just a basic ring. This one was a fun surprise that would've otherwise gone unnoticed, a last-minute add to the list that turns out to be a top 5 player.

Bashas doesn't get stingy when it comes to glazing its chocolate cake donuts. We found this unexpected winner to be supremely dense and highly chocolatey, closer to a fudge flavor than a simple chocolate cake. The crackly-soft vanilla glaze doesn't just rest on the exterior here; it sinks below the surface, as if it were applied while the cake was still warm and absorbent, a small touch that provides a major advantage over the other chocolate donuts.

The cake donut expert at the table was seriously impressed with every dimension of this sugary wonder. I was equally chuffed with how robust the flavors were and how delicate the crumb was. The frosted rings may take center stage in the donut displays, but Bashas proves that the glazed cake donuts can sometimes be the real stars of the show. One of the best donut hacks you can try if you live in the Phoenix area is buying a Bashas chocolate cake donut and enjoying it slowly, preferably with a cup of coffee.

These soft, yeasty donuts used to be my go-to when I worked next door to a Kroger store, called Fry's in my area, though there are many stores owned by Kroger around the U.S. It seemed like the chocolate glaze was always soft and frosting-like, and the vanilla glaze underneath was a sweetness that was always welcome. It's been years since I'd indulged in one, so I was eager to circle back and see if my memory matched the current state of the donut world at the Kroger up the street from my home. Granted, wolfing down a donut at the office and enjoying one in a home setting are two entirely different experiences. I could only hope my taste buds would appreciate a treat I once loved dearly.

What a relief when I discovered that this donut hasn't lost an ounce of its staying power. There was a balanced chocolate flavor in the icing that kept it from being too sweet and a perfectly textured dough that also had a nice flavor of its own, likely due to being a member of the fresh donut case. It turns out it wasn't just the need for a work-based sugar fix that made a Kroger chocolate iced donut a superior pick. The chain has a lock on creating an even-handed chocolate donut that doles out the sweet and the savory in just the right measures and provides near-perfection for 98 cents a pop. 

My donut-tasting crew found a chocolate iced donut that was on its game, courtesy of Bashas, a small Arizona chain that does donuts with the fearsome spirit of a much larger enterprise. We've frequently enjoyed a dozen rings and bars on garage sale mornings; the habit has become a tradition through the years. Usually, we just dig right into our favorites without a second thought. This time, we had our thinking caps on and our palates set to "discern" to determine just what makes a chocolate iced donut from Bashas such a good time.

Three of my fellow tasters were able to summarize it in sweet fashion: There's plenty of chocolate icing to fill in the gap (I refer to it as the "donut chasm", since "donut hole" is an actual thing) over a donut that's doggone good and fluffy. It's closer to a classic chocolate ganache recipe than basic icing. The contrasting aspects merge to make a chocolate donut that's more memorable than most, and certainly worth the top spot in the rankings. It carries on the tradition and avails itself admirably against its challengers in the sampling, as much as a baked good can.

The temptation to snarf down every one of these chocolate donuts was a genuine challenge. I made myself and my tasting team take a single bite of each to start with, to gauge freshness and flavor, taking note of frosting, glaze, and dough. It was easier than anticipated to separate them in a one-bite test, but it was our preference to do a two-bite test to make sure we weren't missing anything. Did we finish the ones we liked best? Yes, we did. And we enjoyed every moment.

Beyond the usual taste-testing aspects, I also took note of the appearance and size of the donuts. Smooth frosting and fluffy dough gained more traction than dry frosting and tough dough. And if the donut itself had a little extra something to offer, like a touch of spice, I factored it into the mix. The result was a leaderboard of the best grocery store bakery chocolate donuts for your money, plus a group of sugar-shocked taste testers in sore need of a nap.