Most people are acquainted with the image of the blue-clad policeman staking out baddies while washing a fistful of doughnuts down his throat with a cup of bad coffee. It's a stereotype that's been seared into popular consciousness by Hollywood cop films.In reality, Constable Adriaan de Klerk from the Garsfontein Tracing Task Force, professes that his team's favourite late-night sugar rush is a plain old KitKat Chunky. But the team were still very happy to assist The Times in settling the age-old dispute of which doughnut is the best.The epitome of American doughnut culture, Krispy Kreme, launched its flagship store in Rosebank last week and much to our surprise there was not a cop in sight.Instead, over 200 people were seen camping overnight outside the Rosebank store to be the first in line to get in on the action.The company has an ever-changing range of doughnuts - lemon meringue pie, chocolate dreamcake and mango passion cheesecake are past flavours - and they're displayed in glass cabinets like huge beads in a jewellery shop.Since our men in blue don't have the time to queue, our mission was to take the test to them.The plan was fraught with obstacles, including waiting for over an hour to order the Krispy Kremes and being turned away at several police stations - we literally couldn't give them away.We called the station commander, who directed us to the provincial commander, who said we needed permission from the national police commissioner to give away our pastry. Who knew our law enforcement officers were so reluctant to take free refreshments?In Pretoria, we found Constable de Klerk, Sergeant Nico de Beer and Sergeant Pierre Volschenk and off duty Netcare 911 paramedics Dwain Coetzee, Gerard Louw and Jacques Botha, who agreed to try our doughnut selection from Woolworths, Spar, Pick n Pay and Krispy Kreme.THE POLICEThe Pick n Pay doughnuts had just the right amount of softness and sweetness but Sergeant Volschenk prefers his doughnuts "soft and fluffy" and thought the original glaze Krispy Kremes were the clear winners. When we revealed that people had queued for four hours to get them they retorted: "We know why. If they open a branch here we will also queue for them."On the down side they agreed "there's something wrong with the icing with the doughnuts from Spar" and they unanimously thought that plain cinnamon "doesn't work lekker with doughnuts".But the whole team was shocked to find out that the "very dry and bready" doughnuts came from Woolworths and wouldn't give them a second taste.Ranking1. Krispy Kreme (R99.95 for an assorted dozen)2. Pick n Pay (R24.99 for an assorted 10)3. Spar (R10 for an assorted four)4. Woolworths (R17.85 for three plain cinnamon, R29.85 for chocolate sprinkles)THE PARAMEDICSAccording to the guys "chocolate is always a winner" although Coetzee far preferred the Pick n Pay chocolate to the Krispy Kreme, going as far as to say that the former's tasted like "I want more", whereas the chocolate Krispy Kreme tasted like "no thanks".The Woolworths doughnuts were once again called out for being "too breadish", and Pick n Pay's dough was singled out as having a superior texture.Ranking1. Pick n Pay2. Spar3. Krispy Kreme4. WoolworthsOVERALL WINNERPick n Pay, and although the dough in the original glazed Krispy Kreme is seen as superior, thesweetness lets them down.Plus, Pick n Pay's wide selection for a reasonable price can't be overlooked, that and the fact that it only took four minutes to acquire the goodies means that everyone can get their sugar rush on before speeding off to save lives. Over and out.Try Krispy Kreme at Rosebank Mall...