What is the best part about the fall? Pumpkin spice everything, or anything, seems too obvious. Marathons in New York City, Boston and Chicago seem too arbitrary and inaccessible. Halloween, though it is definitely a top-three holiday, still isn’t the absolute best thing that falling leaves and cozy sweaters bring. Apple cider donuts, on the other hand, are an overlooked fall essential that should never be ignored.
To be clear, these donuts are not to be conflated with donuts from Krispy Kreme or Target. The apple cider donuts that are an essential part of fall are the ones you must work hard for. The ones you might have to travel two or four hours to enjoy. With each bite they bring a little bit of a New England fall back to the forefront of your memory. They’re delicious and tinged with cinnamon and sugar. They’re even better warm and toasty — especially after you’ve been roaming around an apple orchard all day. This too, is an amazing part of fall. The fact that in order to find the perfect apple cider donuts, you might end up taking that four-hour trip straight to the 20-acre apple farm filled with ripe apples and strategically placed pumpkins.
Despite the clichés of warm donuts melting in your mouth, sugary hot chocolate warming you up and the perfect-sized pumpkin just big enough to carve, fall is fantastic. Congress is back in full session, candy is literally everywhere, the East Coast turns into a breathtaking landscape of fall foliage and for Domers, football happens. Embedded in all of these things is a hidden privilege that is necessary to enjoy and take full advantage of everything that fall has to offer.
So maybe, this fall, the best thing about it is that it’s even happening at all. The luxury that going to an apple orchard brings to parents who don’t have to work on the weekend, or kids that get to miss their weekend travel soccer tournament for some fun family time.
Or maybe it’s not quite as serious. Maybe the privilege of fall does lie within the manufactured pumpkin and sugary drinks or the fact that the falling leaves look especially stunning for those lucky few that live on the East Coast. Whatever it is that makes fall so fantastic, apple cider donuts do a pretty fantastic job at being a constant reminder that fall is near and here.
Don't forget the apple orchard
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.