Krispy Kreme Donut Field Trip

The kids and I went on a field trip yesterday to Krispy Kreme donuts. We had about 40 kids plus parents (and even a grandfather) and divided into two groups. One group took the tour and the other group got to eat their free doughnut as they waited. Included with this FREE tour was every child and parent received a free doughnut of their choice, any type of doughnut.

The tour began in the back storeroom with a discussion of the supplies and the amount of supplies they go through and donuts they make. The particular store we were at makes an average of 20,000 doughnuts a day! Their number one seller is the original glazed and second is a close call between chocolate glazed and chocolate sprinkled. In case you are wondering, employees can eat as many doughnuts as they want during their shift. They also can bring one dozen home free with them. One of our students commented that there was not a single overweight employee there yesterday so maybe they don't really want to eat them.

We saw the big standing mixer they use. It looks like a giant kitchen aid, but it also has a spinning scraper that scrapes as it mixes. One mom noted we should contact kitchen aid about adding that feature to our home versions! We saw all the other machines used in making doughnuts. We found out that it takes about an hour to make a doughnut from start to finish.

Ciaran thought how they added icing was interesting. The have a big barrel of spinning chocolate that they dip the donuts into. Two people stand at the machine and each dips two doughnuts at a time. They have a machine that adds the filling into the donuts (there are no holes in the doughnuts ahead of time. Then our tour guide (the store's general manager) took us to the window where you watch the doughnuts being made. He explained that it takes about 20 minutes for the doughnuts to rise and then it only takes 2 minutes to cook them, one minute each side in 320 degree oil. The glaze is added by a small glaze waterfall.

The kids asked some good questions and seemed to enjoy themselves. This was a second tour on our field trip day. We began the day with our snow plow safety tour. It is a pretty short tour if you were planning on doing it by itself. However, it is free, informative and you get a free Krispy Kreme hat (parents wore them too) and free doughnuts.

Peace,
Tenn