Guides
The Best Donuts for a Road Trip (And the Ones That Will Make a Mess)
7 September 2026 · 4 min read
Utah is a driving state. Between the parks, the canyons and the fact that everything is two hours from everything else, a lot of our donuts get eaten at seventy miles an hour. Some hold up. Some absolutely do not.
The ones that travel
- Old fashioned and cake donuts. Dense, sturdy, low-mess. They keep their shape in a box on a winding road and they are still good hours later. The best road donut there is.
- Plain glazed. A thin glaze sets firm and does not transfer. Simple and reliable.
- Savoury kolaches. Not a donut, but the best travelling item we make. Everything is sealed inside the dough — nothing drips, nothing falls out, one hand.
- Donut holes. Bite-sized, no bitten edges going stale, and easy to pass around a car.
The ones that don't
- Cream and custard filled. Wonderful at the counter. In a warm car they soften and find their way onto everything.
- Heavily decorated specialty donuts. The tall ones with toppings. They are built to be looked at, and they arrive looking like they lost a fight.
- Anything with chocolate on a summer day. A Utah car in July is an oven. This is not complicated.
- Powdered sugar. Fine for you. Ruinous for a dark car interior and everyone else's clothes.
Packing a box properly
- One layer. Stacked donuts crush the bottom row. Two shallow boxes beat one deep one.
- Heaviest at the edges. Cake and old fashioned around the outside, delicate ones in the middle where they get some protection.
- Flat, not on a seat. The footwell or the boot. A seat tips at the first proper corner.
- Out of direct sun. A box on the parcel shelf is a bad idea by about ten in the morning.
The night-before question
People often ask whether to buy the evening before an early start. Our honest answer is no — a donut is meaningfully better on the day it was made, and the drop-off overnight is real. If you are leaving early, we open at 5:00am at every shop, which is usually earlier than you need. Buy them fresh.
For a long drive
A mixed box of old fashioneds and large savoury kolaches, plus coffee. It covers sweet and savoury, everything survives the journey, and nobody needs a fork or a napkin they do not have.