RALEIGH -- It's an unlikely marriage between two Tar Heel dietary delicacies, but will customers bite? We'll find out today, when the Cheerwine Kreme Filled Doughnut goes on sale for a limited time.
The pastry - a combination between Cheerwine, the fizzy cherry soft drink born in Salisbury, and Krispy Kreme, the glazed doughnut bred in Winston-Salem - was unveiled Wednesday at Gov. Bev Perdue's office.
"Cheerwine has been a popular flavor with food for a long time," said Cliff Ritchie, Cheerwine's president. "This was a natural fit. It is like North Carolina in a doughnut."
The collaboration is a regular Krispy Kreme filled with Cheerwine-flavored crème and topped with chocolate glaze and sprinkles. It's available at grocery and Krispy Kreme stores in North and South Carolina through this month.
"We're always looking for new, unique flavors, and Cheerwine offers that," said Brad Wall, a senior vice president of Krispy Kreme. He noted that Krispy Kreme customers had frequently requested the unusual pairing.
The governor called the snack's flavor "a home run" and said the fusion between the two products helps raise awareness about the state's economy.
Ritchie said the doughnut's creation was a rare moment of experience beating expectation.
"You come up with an idea, and you won't know how it will turn out until you taste it in reality," he said. "This exceeded our expectations."
