Special Spring Donut!

Once again Mister Donut is taking advantage of the season by introducing a seasonal taste sensation, this time capitalizing on the joy of spring. Spring is a big deal all over the world, but in Japan the coming of the cherry blossoms makes it an especially anticipated event. Unfortunately there’s no sakura flavored treat at good ol’ Mister Donut (yet, anyway), but they’re celebrating the season with the advent of the ‘strawberry cream’ donut.

This is one of the best flavors I’ve ever had at this particular donut shop. It’s not especially complicated, just a plain vanilla donut shaped like a strawberry with standard strawberry icing and topped with a little green chocolate representing the strawberry’s stem. In terms of presentation it’s simple and effective. And I’d say the same about taste, too; I expected it to be filled with simple white cream, but the cream inside is actually strawberry flavored, and sweet with just a hint of tartness to give it a little kick. It’s well worth the calories!

Valentine’s Donuts

It’s almost Valentine’s Day, and for Japan that means love-themed treats at your local Mister Donut! Whenever there’s a theme holiday I’m excited to see what Mister Donut comes up with.

This February they’ve come up with some simple but cheerful designs. One of them is a heart-shaped donut that you can get with chocolate, strawberry, or (I believe) vanilla icing. This kind is topped with colourful sprinkles and has a pretty standard donut base.

The second type I’ve gotten is the Valentine’s Day take on the ‘pon de ring’, Mister Donut’s signature pastry. I’ve commented on the ‘pon de ring’ in past posts but this one is probably my favorite design so far. It’s the classic ‘pon de ring’ design, this time with chocolate batter. It comes with the choice of chocolate or strawberry icing, colourful sprinkles (just like the heart) and tiny marshmallows to top it off. It’s pretty cute and nigh impossible to resist.

I discovered something a little disturbing when I was eating this one, though. The ‘pon de ring’ has a distinctly moist and chewy texture that I’m sure a lot of people feel is the appeal of this particular type of donut. The reason for that texture, though, is that the inside of the donut is only partially baked, meaning that you’re basically eating partially raw batter.

I’m living in the land of raw fish and basically raw everything, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised by this, but somehow I was. Raw fish is always very well refrigerated here in Japan, so I never worry about getting sick from it, but these donuts are left on room-temperature shelves, presumably for quite a long time if nobody is coming by to eat them. I guess in the future I’ll be a little more hesitant to get these ones.

Crazy Kit Kats

Japanese Kit Kats are pretty famous around the internet for having surprising and shall we say less than appetizing flavors in the minds of most foreigners. I think everyone has heard of green tea Kit Kat, and I once even found a site that reviewed cheese-flavored Kit Kat when I was living back in Canada. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) I haven’t seen any of the cheese ones around, but I have come across some flavors that I feel must be reviewed.

One of the more common flavors I’ve come across is strawberry. It’s available in most convenience stores and I’ve seen it in grocery stores too, so I’m guessing there’s a pretty large group of consumers who typically enjoy it.

The strawberry taste is surprisingly strong, and it reminds me a lot more of a yogurt-dipped granola bar than a chocolate bar. I was expecting white chocolate with cheap strawberry flavoring, so I was pleasantly surprised by this one.

A less-than-common flavor that really caught my eye is the passion fruit variety. I have no idea what thought process would lead to passion fruit Kit Kat, and the packaging honestly isn’t that enticing:

There’s something very off-putting about seeing a yellow Kit Kat bar in my opinion…I’m not sure why the strawberry one doesn’t bother me, but it may have something to do with the fact that I’ve lived in Japan for far too long. Unlike the strawberry kind, the passion fruit flavor is something of a rarity, at least in my neck of the woods; I found it for the first time a few weeks ago in a 7-11 way across town from my apartment.

Unfortunately, the taste doesn’t give me much motivation to go that far to get one. The passion fruit Kit Kat basically tastes like someone wrapped a stick of juicy fruit around a plain vanilla wafer. It’s as weird as I assumed it would be. But interestingly enough, one stick of passion fruit Kit Kat has only 67 calories, three less than a stick of strawberry. So if you’re on a diet, maybe this is the one for you.

And finally we come to the crowning jewel of my collection: the seasonal pumpkin pudding Kit Kat!

I couldn’t believe it when I first saw it, but yes, this is really a thing. I don’t think this one’s super widely available since I need to travel just as far to get it than I do to get the passion fruit flavour. Additionally, this kind is only available in the Halloween candy section of the grocery star in large bags, so you can’t get an individual pumpkin pudding Kit Kat bar. What you get instead are tiny, ‘fun-sized’ bars, which come in a variety of Halloween-themed packaging. Some bars have jack-o-lantern packages, some have cute ghosts:

Honestly, the pumpkin pudding ones taste great. The pumpkin spice is definitely strong enough to taste without being overpowering and the bar’s unusual taste makes it a fun adventure to eat. Also, a stick of pumpkin pudding Kit Kat only 68 calories, for those who care.

If I can find a green tea Kit Kat around town I’ll try one out, and I definitely plan to take a look at the cherry blossom flavored Kit Kats that come out in the spring (yes, really). For the sake of my waist, though, I had better end this snack review here!