America’s Favourite Dessert Chains 

“America runs on Dunkin”, according to fast-food giant Dunkin Donuts, a saying which, new research from Supreme Whip can reveal, is true! We all enjoy a sweet treat from time to time. 32% of Americans, in fact, indulge in dessert at least twice a week, according to a recent survey. 

In the last year alone, the number of dessert-focused businesses in the US has increased by 3.2%. As competition between chains intensifies, traditional favourites find themselves locked in furious battles with industry newcomers to secure the prestigious title of top dessert provider.

To find out more about our nation’s eating habits, Supreme Whip Cream chargers decided to use search data to identify each state’s favourite dessert. 

Mapped: America’s Favourite Dessert

The Top Three 

Dunkin’ Donuts, The Cheesecake Factory, and Krispy Kreme topped our lists of the nation’s favourite desserts. In 1950, American entrepreneur Bill Rosenburg opened Dunkin’ Donuts very first store in Quincy, Maine. He franchised the restaurant five years later, and there are now more than 9000 stores serving donuts and coffee to eager consumers across America. On average, there are 2 174 440.13 internet searches for the brand every month in the US. The highest number of searches for Dunkin’ Donuts is in Florida, where searches average 207 977 per month. Dunkin Donuts was revealed to be the most popular dessert chain in 20 states. 

Our data indicates that The Cheesecake Factory, meanwhile, is the most popular dessert restaurant in Nevada, Arizona, California, Missouri, Colorado and Hawaii, and averages 1 434 223 searches each month. Known for its indulgent desserts, this celebrated chain was first founded in the late 1970s. Today, The Cheesecake Factory has stores in over 200 locations worldwide. With a menu spanning over 200 items, and 30 unique flavours of cheesecake on offer, there’s truly something for everyone. 

Residents of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, Alabama, Kentucky, Oregon, Nebraska, Mississippi, Idaho, Louisiana and Arkansas all chose Krispy Kreme as their favourite dessert chain. Krispy Kreme originally began life as a wholesale business, selling its delicious treats exclusively to grocery stores. In the 1940s and 50s the company expanded, with family-owned franchises setting up shop across the Carolinas. Krispy Kreme offers a variety of sugary snacks, but its Original Glazed recipe remains the most popular. 

Data Breakdown: Which dessert chain is most popular in YOUR state? 

Where is dessert food the most popular? 

Our data crowned Vermont as the dessert capital of America, with 93 searches for dessert-related terms per 1000 residents. Sweet treats were also particularly popular in Michigan, Ohio and Maine, with 40 searches, 39 searches and 37 searches per 1000 residents respectively. 

Methodology 

We used a combination of Ahrefs and keyword planner to determine the monthly search volume for ten of America’s biggest dessert chains in each state. To determine the search volume per 1000 residents, we identified the total search volume by the total population of each state and multiplied this by 1000.