Taste of the Times: Linda’s Donuts wins over judges
Belmont shop easily tops local competitors in blind taste test in Raider Times newsroom
The Taste of the Times blind taste test compared four styles of donuts — jelly, plain, glazed, and chocolate — from four locations — Linda’s Donuts in Belmont, Dunkin’ Dounts, Koffee Kup, and Shaw’s.
March 20, 2017
Everyone has their favorite places to get certain foods. But what if you didn’t where that food was coming from? Would it still be your favorite?
Recently, the Raider Times newsroom participated in a blind taste test to determine where people could find the best-tasting donut in the Watertown area.
The 15 newsroom judges tested the same selection of donuts from four locations. They tasted four styles — plain, glazed, jelly, and chocolate — from each location, then graded each location from 1 (lowest) to 4 (highest). The location with the most points would be the winner.
The donuts to be tested came from …
- Dunkin’ Donuts, 49 River St., Waltham;
- Koffee Kup (sold in supermarkets around New England, including Shaw’s);
- Linda’s Donuts, 247 Belmont St., Belmont;
- Shaw’s supermarket bakery, 130 River St., Waltham.
The judges did not see the donuts until pieces of each were served on identical plates. Surprisingly, the newsroom judges independently and almost unanimously ranked the locations in the same order.
In fourth place were the Koffee Kup brand of packaged donuts (18 points). Comments included “tastes like chewing gum … glazed is everything it shouldn’t be … stiff, soggy, wet.”
In third place were the donuts from Shaw’s supermarket bakery (32 points). Comments included “dry … glaze not well-distributed … bland, plain … jelly too sweet … dough high quality, but toppings not great.”
In second place was the selection from Dunkin’ Donuts (45 points). Comments included “Chocolate had good consistency … moist, not too sticky … all dry, not as much flavor … texture not good, more processed.”
And the clear winner, with 53 points, was Linda’s Donuts. Comments included “jelly is sweet and tangy … tastes like real jelly … perfect amount of glaze … plain donut was crunchy outside, soft inside.”
Congratulations to Linda’s Donuts for winning the Taste of the Times blind taste test!
(Raider Times newsroom staffers Crystal Yapoudjian, Daniel Corbett, Doris Spahillari, Gabriel Tejada, Ian Simpson, Jack Edgely, Kayla Overshown, Kevin Greene, Maia Vachon, Martin Tibets, Max Potseluev, Nicole Topanian, Rojin Jajan, Rose Muldrew, Samantha McFarland, Siranush Tolmoyan, and Winter Mahon contributed to this report.)
–March 19, 2017–
Warren Lee • Mar 21, 2017 at 4:41 am
Thanks to the judges for resolving such a sticky situation