Breakfast in America: Why do we love coffee with our donuts?

There is a Wikipedia page for just about everything, including the classic combination of coffee and donuts. Yes, while coffee and donuts each have their own pages, the traditional morning amalgam of the two also has its own entry, rife with details on why coffee and donuts have been such a perfect pairing for so long.The beginning of the coffee crazeThe merging of coffee and donuts has been around much longer than Wikipedia; donuts and coffee have actually been linked together as a breakfast staple since at least the early-to-mid 1800s. That's when donuts grew in popularity as Dutch and German communities moved westward in America and coffee began to surpass tea as a popular morning drink.Why donuts aren't dessertWhy do they pair so well together? Part of it is circumstantial. Throughout most of American history, baking was a morning routine and donuts were therefore made in the morning. To grab a quick donut to dunk into a cup of strongly brewed coffee made the best of two available products.The carbs and caffeine cureAnother part is scientific: The bitter flavors of coffee contrast the sweet, bready textures of donuts. Having carbs and caffeine in the morning is a jolt to the system after long hours of sleep and metabolic rest. Caffeine awakens the brain, while simple carbs found in flour and sugar give the digestive system a quick dose of energy. For donuts that include chocolate, the flavonoids and chemical compounds in coffee mimic those in chocolate, making chocolate taste rich, robust and deep.A breakfast for blue collars and bar hoppersAs donuts became widely produced and available thanks to automatic donut machines — the invention was so popular, they were dubbed "the food hit of the Century of Progress" at the 1934 World's Fair — the price of donuts dropped considerably. A donut could be produced and sold for five cents in the 1930s (far less than a dollar today) and were often made around the clock to serve late-night shift workers, Prohibition-era bar hoppers and post-show theater patrons.Coffee is great for staying awake during those long working hours, too. Pairing coffee and donuts outside of normal breakfast hours became a habit that donut shops capitalized on. Between 1930 and 1950 many of the nationwide donut shops Americans love — Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' among them — were opened; these shops sold coffee along with donuts, many of them credited with changing the popular spelling of "donut."Chain reactionToday, it's almost impossible to find a donut shop that doesn't serve coffee. Many national chains — like Tim Hortons and Dunkin' — package and promote the two items together, with Dunkin' dropping the original "Donuts" from its name in 2018 to emphasize the role coffee plays in the company.Nevertheless, donuts remain a stable in the American diet. According to a survey by Statista, over 201 million Americans report eating donuts regularly. There are over 25,000 donut shops in the U.S., producing many of the 10 billion donuts sold nationwide each year.