We Tried 11 Store-Bought Chocolate Donuts; This Small Grocery Chain's Bakery Sells The Best Hands Down

When you're in the mood for something chocolatey and indulgent, there are brownies, cakes, and cookies to choose from. But sometimes, particularly for early mornings, donuts are the only thing that will suffice. A stop at a grocery store bakery is called for, but not all store-bought donuts hit the spot. So Mashed did the hard work for you and tried 11 grocery store bakery chocolate donuts, and Bashas' chocolate iced donut came out on top.

This donut didn't win first place for doing anything too out of the ordinary — it was selected for covering all the basics very well. It had a fluffy, tasty dough, and its generous amount of icing was smooth and fully covered the center hole. Many donut icings can be over-the-top sugary, but this one was rich and chocolate-y without going overboard, and our taste tester compared it to chocolate ganache. The grocery chain's glazed chocolate cake donut (also often called an old-fashioned) was also highly ranked in our list, coming in third place for its ideally-dense texture and a fudge-like flavor. 

If you're not familiar, Bashas is a small Arizona grocery store chain, and it's not a surprise that its donuts were so highly rated, as the in-store bakery makes its donuts from scratch and fresh daily. For a bit of context, Kroger's chocolate-coated donut ranked last on our list for its odd, chewy texture and a disappointing glaze. These aren't the freshest donuts; self-identified Kroger employees have reported on Reddit that donuts come in frozen, are thawed overnight, and baked in the morning.

If you want to snag a donut from Bashas, hopefully you're located in the Southwest — this chain has over a hundred locations in Arizona and just a couple in New Mexico, but nowhere else in the country. Aside from its amazing chocolate donuts, the grocer offers dozens of different donut varieties and also offers custom creations for customers. Every night, the bakery prepares its donut dough and lets it rise overnight before frying the donuts fresh the following morning. Bashas seems to have one of the best grocery store bakeries, as it also makes its bread, some types of cookies, and muffins from scratch and bakes them daily.

Mashed's tasting team isn't the only group that thinks highly of the store's donuts. On a local Phoenix Reddit thread discussing the best donut shops in the area, several users mentioned Bashas, even though it's technically a grocery store. One user wrote, "They are made fresh daily and are generally wonderful while being more affordable than the shops usually are." Another user who responded to this comment stated, "I agree with this, Bashas [has] an old time bakery quality to [it] that I enjoy. More substantial dough with a simple crispy edge (if done right). But I do find quality can vary between locations."

Are you more of a glazed donut person? While you can probably depend on Bashas for a tasty one, Mashed also ranked 11 store-bought glazed donuts.