Coffee and Donuts

Before I moved to St. Louis, I read an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer that noted there are only 70 Dunkin Donuts west of the Mississippi. I had lived in North Carolina for three years—Krispy Kreme Kountry—and I was relieved to be back up North with a Dunkin Donuts on every other street corner. I couldn't believe the article. Only 70 western Dunkin Donuts?

Now that I’m West of the Mississippi, the nearest Dunkin Donuts is 29.6 miles away. According to the pollster Zogby, that should be fine by me; according to a recent study, Starbucks has “two-to-one dominance among liberals and progressives” over Dunkin Donuts, and “women prefer Starbucks by a….40% to 24% margin.”

Zogby was polling about coffee, not donuts, and as far as coffee is concerned I definitely follow the herd of liberal women to the nearest Starbucks. I don’t like that Dunkin Donuts puts cream and sugar in my coffee for me; I much prefer to fiddle with it myself and make the ratios perfect. The fancy coffee drinks at Dunkin Donuts are too sweet and decadent; I’ll take my tall-skim-mocha-light-whip any day.

But the donuts from DD can’t be beat. As far as I’m concerned, Krispy Kremes are fine if the hot light is on, but otherwise they’re painfully sweet and not worth the money. The overpriced pastries from Starbucks are nice as a treat, but they can’t compare with a chocolate-iced donut from DD.

Ah, Zogby. He agrees that we’re defined by what we consume. I wonder where he buys his coffee? Or perhaps, like my husband, he evades categorization entirely by drinking tea.

Photo by Sidereal on flickr.com.