The Guilty Pleasure: Marshmallow-filled, Ghostbusters-themed donuts. Where to Get It: Krispy Kreme, several locations around town. Price: About $1.20 each. What it Really Costs: Oh, sugar!
Nostalgia for the 1980s and 1990s is in full swing these days. The latest entry is the Ghostbusters franchise celebrating its 30th anniversary. Yes folks, you read that right, as of this year it's been three decades since Bill Murray and the gang first crossed the streams.
Naturally, along with this anniversary, there's a marketing blitz to both sell more copies of the movie, and sell things that weren't related to the movie until someone put a Ghostbusters logo or the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man on it.
See Also: Starbucks vs. McDonald's Pumpkin Spice Latte Super Heavyweight Showdown One of the more clever entries in the cross-promotional madness comes from Krispy Kreme. They have not one but two Ghostbusters themed doughnuts, and they're serving them just in time for Halloween. One is a straightforward Ghostbusters doughnut with a sugar Ghostbusters logo affixed to the donut by a little green Slimer frosting splat, and the other is themed to the iconic Stay-Puft character.
Both of these doughnuts are identical aside from the decoration. It's a doughnut filled with marshmallow creme (or kreme if we're going by Krispy Kreme's lingo), topped with white icing, and then decorated with the requisite accoutrements.
I wish the doughnut had a little more something going on. The marshmallow filling is more about the gooey texture than the taste. It doesn't taste like much of anything but sugar, and the white icing has the same flavor profile. Combined, the two add up to a sugar bomb that was too much for my serious sweet tooth.
Alongside that offering, it's only natural that Krispy Kreme is one of the bazillion companies offering pumpkin spice flavored foodstuffs.
They have the requisite pumpkin spice latte (I'm already having PSL overload, thanks a lot Starbucks for releasing the damn thing so early every year), and not one but two pumpkin doughnuts: A pumpkin spice cake doughnut, and a pumpkin cheesecake filled doughnut.
The cheesecake doughnut was brilliant in theory. In practice, Krispy Kreme is so stingy on the filling that it barely registers. I tried a nibble of the cheesecake filling on its own and think that the doughnut would have been great, if only they used about twice as much filling as they did.
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On the other hand, the pumpkin spice cake doughnut may be one of the more underrated pumpkin spice offerings out there. As with many pumpkin spice things, it's more spice than pumpkin (which doesn't have much of a flavor on its own to begin with), but in this case it works very well.
The pumpkin spice cake doughnut is the kind of flavor that begs to be dunked in a cup of hot coffee. I feel like if Krispy Kreme sold it as a spice cake doughnut, they would have a year-round hit on their hands. But maybe it's better that Krispy Kreme only offers it in fall; much like McDonald's infamous McRib, it wouldn't be as much fun if I could take it for granted and get one any time I wanted.
The Ghostbusters doughnuts will be around through Halloween, so if you want to get your sugar-sweet on, head down there sooner rather than later.
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