Building a better donut
Spotted in the International Herald Tribune: "Need your caffeine fix? Have a doughnut." Sounds like pure genius to me.
Dr. Robert Bohannon may be your new best friend. Bohannon is the North Carolina molecular biologist who six years ago sat down before a glass of milk and a doughnut and had the audacity to think that there was something wrong with that picture. Why not add caffeine — to the doughnut?A normal person would stop right there and call out for a latte. Someone who had been chewing coffee beans since he was 8 would call out for a kilogram of food-grade caffeine. With the help of a local baker, Bohannon set about attempting to create what he had already named: the Buzz Donut.
The early results were disappointing; "they tasted like aluminum cans," he says. Grainy versions followed. As of this week, perfection has been achieved and a patent filed. Bohannon is now waiting for Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts — do trans fats somehow impair the ability to spell? — to call.
It's a busy world we live in, and I'm all for time-saving efficiencies like this. Eat the donut as you dash to the station, and you get your morning jolt without worrying that the coffee is going to splash all over your coat and make you brown and stinky. Admittedly that's a handy way to get a little more elbow room on a crowded train . . . Maybe lots of caffeinated crumbs stuck in your beard would help you cultivate that same air of STAY AWAY, though.
