Krispy Kreme Field Trip - YUM!

This week my kids and I had a very impromptu and last minute field trip to a local Krispy Kreme Donut factory which is located about 20 minutes from my home.  Let me just say that from the moment you step out of your car in the parking lot, you are hit with the most amazing smell.  I don't know how the people that live near the factory stand it!  I would gain weight on the wonderful smell alone.

Before I get started on the tour photos, I thought I'll share some facts about Krispy Kreme that we learned while visiting.  Krispy Kreme was born in Winston-Salem, NC, in the summer of 1937 by Vernon Rudolph.  He purchased a yeast raised donut recipe from a French chef in New Orleans.  He started selling the donuts to local grocery stores.  The smells permeating the air attracted attention and people wanted to buy the hot donuts they could smell, so he started selling them out of his factory location.  Over the years these donuts became more and more popular.  Shops began popping up all over the southeast.  At the time of Vernon Rudolph's death in 1973, there were 60 shops.  1989 brought the very first Krispy Kreme retail store front located in Greensboro, NC.  Today there are  1000 stores across the county.  They can even be found in Canada and Mexico.

The factory we visited in Concord, NC services the entire north and south east, even Canada.  They produce 300,000 donuts per day 364 days a year.  These donuts are shipped to grocery stores, gas stations and other retail locations.  Now that's a lot of donuts!  We also learned that as an employee of Krispy Kreme, they get all the free donuts they want, along with free Krispy Kreme coffee and Coco-Cola products.  Now you can understand where they get the energy to make that many donuts!

During our tour the line was running filled donuts.  Creme filled, chocolate glazed donuts to be precise.  We started out by viewing the donuts rising inside huge glass ferris wheel type machines.  Up, down and around they go until they have risen to the proper height.

Once they are finished rising, they get dumped out onto a conveyer belt of 350 degree oil.  They cook on one side and then are carefully flipped and cooked on the other side.  Before heading into a cooling compartment along the line.

 

After cooling, any duds are disposed of and two workers stationed on either side of the line carefully use a machine to poke a hole in each donut and fill them with creme.  Each worker fills two donuts at the same time.

 Next the donuts are placed back on the line and go through a machine that gives them their chocolate glaze.  Lastly they are inspected for perfection and placed by hand into their individual sealed boxes. These boxes are stacked at the end up the line and then shipped all over the country.

All of the kids that participated in the tour got to take home a complimentary package of freshly baked donut holes.  I may or may not have made them share. -grins-

All in all its a quick tour that took maybe 30 minutes in all.  But, it was interesting and there were free donut holes.  Win, win!!  Basically, this factory is a larger version of what you would see at one of their franchised retail locations.  If you ever get the chance, check it out!  Its a really "sweet" tour.  Pun intended.  LOL