I had to pick some items up at my local Walmart and decided to give their jelly donuts a try as part of The Great Jelly Donut Hunt. There’s really not much more to the story so I will jump right into the review.
Here is the scale:
Just a quick note before I get to the review: I decided to leave out the criteria on the ambiance and cleanliness of the storefront. I may comment on a store’s vibe if I think it is noteworthy in either a good or bad way. But I’m going to have my reviews be only on the donut itself.
The Jelly Donut Review
Walmart’s Jelly Donut
TOTAL SCORE
Based on the above, the jelly donut from Walmart scores a rating of “okay.”
Detailed Review
Ambiance/Vibe & Cleanliness
It’s a Walmart. Not much to say. The bakery section is nice and clean. I do find it less satisfying that they keep their donuts boxed up. You have to purchase them in pairs or other boxed sets. There is no mixing and matching individual donuts at Walmart.
I suppose that is more sanitary, so maybe that’s worth it. It’s just not as satisfying and it doesn’t feel like you are getting a fresh donut when it comes pre-boxed.
But let’s face it, no one is buying donuts from Walmart for the experience.
Presentation
The donut is a nice round shape, though maybe just very slightly sunken in the middle.
The main problem with the aesthetics of this donut is that the glaze looks a bit plasticy. My kids commented that the donut looked like a fake donut. And they are right.
The glaze
Even though the glaze looks like plastic, it’s actually quite good. The outside of the glaze has a nice crust (which is the plasticy looking texture) but underneath is a soft and thick layer of glaze. It’s legitimately a great glaze.
The Dough
I couldn’t tell if the dough was disappointing or okay. So I gave it 2.5 stars. It’s a little dry and makes me envision woodchips. But at the same time it’s not too bad. It’s like, “Am I eating woodchips? No, it’s definitely better than woodchips.” Unfortunately, that’s not a great standard of accomplishment for your dough.
The Jelly
The jelly is bad. It seems like some weird gelatin masquerading as jelly. It’s like Walmart found they could make their jelly filling stretch further if they added some gelatin to it. It is not a good jelly.
Jelly-to-Dough Ratio
Even though the jelly and dough by themselves are not great. Walmart does a good job of nicely distributing the jelly throughout the donut.
I did not get any bite that had way too much jelly. It was a good distribution. The combination of dough to jelly is also better than the dough and jelly alone. The features are synergistic in nature — the combination is better than the sum of the individual parts.
The value
The donuts are $1.97 for two, meaning it is 98.5 cents per donut. Unfortunately, you can’t buy just one donut. And I don’t really want two of them. If I could buy one for $1, I would probably say it is a good value. But I can’t buy one. I have to buy two.
That’s fine if you are with someone else who also wants a jelly donut. But if you’re not, you either end up eating more donuts than you intended or you have to throw a donut in the garbage. Well, I would never throw away a donut so there is no question that I would end up eating two. And that’s why America has an obesity problem.
Conclusion on Walmart’s Jelly Donut
My conclusion is that Walmart’s jelly donuts are “okay.” The good news is that they aren’t “disappointing” or “bad.” I would be interested in trying the glaze on a different donut. I think that could be quite good.
