<\/p>\n\n\n\n
G Herdt\u2019s is located at 2401 Vine St. The shop shares a building with BrightChoice CBD and has an adjoining parking area. The drive is narrow and a short turn off Vine St, so be prepared for a bit of a squeeze while keeping a close watch on customers exiting the store.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The interior alone provides its own sort of eye candy: the counters have a donut pattern reminiscent of sprinkled donuts and the furniture is brightly colored.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/IMG_3322-1.jpg?resize=790%2C593\")
<\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/IMG_3320.jpg?resize=790%2C593\")
<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nThe confectionery serves a range of notable treats like rolled ice cream, edible cookie dough, and protein shakes.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nBut G Herdt\u2019s Donuts\u2019 main attraction, as its name suggests, is its donuts.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe style of donuts at G Herdt\u2019s is different than most donut shops; G Herdt\u2019s only serves cake-style donuts, which are smaller and more dense than the common yeast donut.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhile limited by only serving cake donuts, G Herdt\u2019s sprinkles its menu with a range of \u201cgourmet\u201d donut flavors.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn my visit, I ordered the strawberry, Snickers, PB&J, maple and the peanut butter cup.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nStrawberry:<\/strong> While the G Herdt\u2019s cake donuts take some flak for their size, the cake-style works better with this donut, as the strawberries and the whipped frosting were less sweet toppings than most, creating a strawberry-shortcake-esque donut that tastes good without depending on a glaze. If G Herdt\u2019s changes up its base donut recipe, I could see this still working with a yeast donut, though it would be more like a kolach and wouldn\u2019t have this unique balance.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nSnickers:<\/strong> Putting the Snickers in the middle gives this donut a pleasing look, but I think the overall taste could be improved by breaking apart the bar over the whole surface. Of course, even these small donuts took me a few bites; for those who consume the treat in one mouthful, this would make no difference. Regardless, the whole donut tastes great and complements the candy bar well.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/IMG_3319.jpg?resize=790%2C593\")
<\/figure><\/li>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/IMG_3315.jpg?resize=790%2C593\")
<\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nPB&J: <\/strong>G Herdt\u2019s offers apple or grape jam renditions of this treat, and I went with the apple. This is another flavor that I don\u2019t think would work well as a yeast donut, simply because the peanut butter is too strong for a fluffier base; the cake donut balances well with it. And the apple jam spiced the flavor up enough that it didn\u2019t bring back bad memories of my many days of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches growing up.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nMaple:<\/strong> This was my grandmother\u2019s favorite. Maple is a classic and will remain on its throne as a simple and flawless frosting on whatever kind of donut it graces. Maybe in the future, G Herdt\u2019s will add long johns to its menu, as this flavor deserves a lot of doughy real estate.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nPeanut Butter Cup:<\/strong> This was my favorite. Surprisingly, the peanut butter taste was even stronger than in the PB&J, but as someone who eats peanut butter straight out of the jar with a spoon, I think that makes it even better. Even if I didn\u2019t like it, I would pick it again because it just looks delicious with its chocolate drizzle and peanut butter chips. A chocolate + peanut butter combo rarely goes wrong.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nSour Patch Kids: <\/strong>While I didn\u2019t try this flavor myself, my brother likened the taste to that of steak sauce and ice cream: two good flavors that should not go together.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs a hole,<\/em> I do think that G Herdt\u2019s has a lot to offer beyond donuts and can county on more than just their tasty cake-style treats. While its donuts are delicious, G Herdt\u2019s isn\u2019t your typical donut shop.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nI do worry that the \u201ccheap college student\u201d crowd may get more dough for their dough at other locations like gas stations and supermarkets due to G Herdt\u2019s selling its fancier donuts for just shy of $2. The quality is definitely better at G Herdt\u2019s, but I fear that the cost will shy away customers once the initial hype dies down.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nTo combat this, G Herdt\u2019s selling point shouldn\u2019t just be their donuts. They offer some treats that few other places in Hays can boast, such as protein shakes, edible cookie dough, and rolled ice cream.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/IMG_3323.jpg?resize=309%2C232\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nAs a vegetarian in cattle country, I\u2019m always looking for high-protein options, so the protein shakes are what attracted me to G Herdt\u2019s. Protein shakes are usually touch and go, but I tried the G Herdt\u2019s Vanilla Gorilla protein shake and loved it. There are several places around town to buy alcoholic and\/or caffeinated drinks, but far fewer places to snag a tasty protein shake.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nHays also lacks ice cream places. It has a few options like Dairy Queen, Freddy\u2019s, and Sonic, but the area could use a unique ice cream place closer to campus. And with its rolled ice cream, G Herdt\u2019s has the potential to attract a regular crowd of young ice cream enthusiasts.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nOverall, the visual appeal of G Herdt\u2019s makes it worth at least one stop for those who have the cash to spare. For a couple dozen donuts for a work party, Daylight Donuts is still the way to go. But for a sweet experience? G Herdt\u2019s might be worth a try.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BY CJ GIBSON G Herdt\u2019s Donuts & Shanda\u2019s Sweets recently opened in Hays, providing a range of decadent options to choose from, especially as students… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":60426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61,55],"tags":[13956,14191,14190,441],"class_list":["post-60428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-around-town","category-opinion","tag-cj-gibson","tag-donuts","tag-g-herdts-donuts","tag-opinion-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/IMG_3319.jpg?fit=4032%2C3024&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60428"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60430,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60428\/revisions\/60430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/60426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}