Was it when Krispy Kreme set up stores here, and people (like me) lined the block outside the store, hoping for the fabled free doughnut they used to hand out while you waited?

Yes, it started then. But that was more than ten years ago, and since then, Aussie doughnuts have grown up. Sure, we've also turned doughnuts into vehicles for everything from Oreo cookies to whole jars of Nutella to airport-sized Toblerones, but by and large, doughnuts in this country are good. Real good.

We now have cake doughnuts and yeast doughnuts and even crullers - something that was unheard of even a few years ago. We have cinnamon-rolled doughnuts and doughnuts filled with matcha and passionfruit.

We have doughnuts everywhere from Perth to Hobart, and everywhere in between. We've gone nuts for them, that's for sure, and there's no shortage of options. These are some of the best.

Scott and Elise Honeybrook were travelling through the US when they noticed something: all the amazing doughnuts. Back home, there was nothing like it - so they decided to set up their own doughnut business. Their yeasted doughnuts are nothing short of brilliant - soft, chewy dough that's not too sweet. The Buttered Toast flavour, with its brown butter frosting and crumbs of toasty brioche on top, should be illegal, it's so bloody tasty.

Pretty much everything at The Cook and The Baker will change your life, even if momentarily. Their doughnuts, filled with thick, rich cream, are what every afternoon tea should be made of.

Look past the bacon-on-a-doughnut thing and pick up the old-fashioned vanilla glazed: the texture is spot-on, the glaze not too sweet. This is the stuff that it's worth being fat for.

Did you really drive down the NSW South Coast if you didn't stop at the Berry Donut Van? Did you? These straight-out-of-the-deep-fryer confections are generously rolled in cinnamon sugar, and make even the longest road trips bearable.

True story: I had to stop following Doughheads on Instagram because their feed was making me too hungry. Their doughnuts are even better IRL, with an ever-changing menu that showcases quality ingredients like Callebaut chocolate and housemade Monte Carlo biscuits.

While they're now also available in Sydney (at Barangaroo), these doughnuts are practically a Melbourne institution. Shortstop introduced Aussies to the cruller, a popular style of doughnut in North America, and their sea salt and Australian honey cruller is now the top-selling item on the menu. They also do yeast-raised and cake doughnuts. Our pick is the classic cinnamon and cardamom - perfectly spiced and begging for a cup of coffee.

Dusted with sugar, these delicate Italian-style doughnuts (fluffy on the outside, with a subtle crunch to their exterior) are heavy with the silkiest vanilla-flecked custard and light on regrets.

With a little crispiness to their surface (but still yielding within), these doughnuts are good enough to eat plain. But that'd be a mistake, because their flavours - from key lime pie to gin and juice - are truly top-notch.

Possibly the most Instagrammable of an insanely Instagrammable bunch, All Day Donuts are almost too pretty to eat. The work of Raph Rashid - who is sort of the Roy Choi of Melbourne, with his Taco Truck and Beatbox Kitchen - here, attention to detail is everything, from the housemade sprinkles on the 'Homer' to the passionfruit curd delicately piped into hot spheres of dough (and then glazed with coffee syrup and topped with chocolate 'rubble'). 

From the owners of Sunshine Coast burger outfit Hello Harry comes Donut Boyz, where the carbs are sweet and evoke memories of school canteens in days gone by. These are a little more grown-up than your old-school pineapple glazed doughies, though, in flavours like caramel and popcorn, strawberry and white chocolate and the B1 - a doughnut filled with Nutella custard then glazed with banana cream. Whoa.

Cheesecake doughnuts sound wrong, but here, they're so, so right. If that doesn't float your boat, there's also pink coconut, doughnuts spiked with lemon and lime curd, and the "Kakoda" - a double choc beauty that'd be un-Australian not to try.

Perfectly imperfect, the doughnuts at this popular Highgate cafe riff on old-fashioned flavours to create something totally new. Start with the cinnamon-dipped doughnuts and then move on to flavours like chocolate and fennel, lemon maple pecan and cumquat creme patissiere. 

Each Sunday Morning, Lady Hester sets up shop at the Farm Gate markets in Hobart. The sourdough goodies are packed with fillings like sour rhubarb and whisky jam, orange curd and cardamom meringue, and dark chocolate, sea salt and honeycomb.

Light on texture but big on flavour, these yeasted gems are piped with fillings like mascarpone and poached pear, salted butterscotch and hazelnut, and matcha with white chocolate. Flavours change regularly, so there's always something new.