Krispy Kreme's Next Donut Flavor Has Been Chosen

"Democracy dies in darkness" goes the Washington Post's motto, but at Krispy Kremes across the nation, there shines a light of liberty, refracted across its glaze. Yes, the people have spoken, and the results of the online vote for Krispy Kreme's next limited-edition glazed doughtnut flavor has officially been declared: Lemon!

From January 18 through 22, civic-minded Americans headed to voteforglaze.com to, for the first time, choose the Kreme's next doughnut creation for themselves, picking between a worthy field of candidates that, aside from the victorious sour citrus fruit, consisted of blueberry, caramel, and maple doughnuts. But despite the competitive race, with almost two million votes cast, the most popular choice was fairly clear.

Lemon won a plurality of votes, with 36 percent, followed by Caramel with 26 percent, blueberry with 20 percent, and maple at 18 percent. So now, Krispy Kreme's team of doughnut creators will begin work on bringing the new Lemon Glazed Doughnut to into reality—and stores nationwide, at dates that will be announced this spring.

"Lemon won the vote," says Krispy Kreme Chief Marketing Officer Jackie Woodward, "but we can't glaze over the fact that the other three flavors all received a lot of support, even beyond the vote," adding that, for hopefuls of the three runners-up, "while the polls are closed, our minds are not."

Bummed fans of the idea of blueberry, maple, and caramel glazed Krispy Kreme doughnuts should take some heart then. But perhaps rather than relying on hints from the doughnut chain, they should look into the voting system itself. With voteforglaze's first-past-the-post system, the candidate with the most votes (a plurality) wins, while everyone else gets no representation at all, no matter how close they were.

But in, say, a system of proportional representation, Krispy Kreme would reflect the doughnut electorate by creating all four flavors, with 36 out of each 100 being lemon, 26 caramel, 20 blueberry, and 18 maple (or maybe one doughnut with a proportional combination of all 4 flavors). Yes, doughnut democracy may be complicated, but at least it's delicious.