Who knew eating chocolate doughnuts could be so bittersweet?

On 29 November, Japan’s premier doughnut chain, Mister Donut, released a new duo of doughnuts for adult tastes, called “Adult Pon de Chocolat Rich Cacao” and “Adult Pon de Chocolat Rich Caramel“.

In Japan, sweets dubbed “adult” or “otona“, to use the Japanese term, are widely understood to be more bitter and less sweet than the mainstream. So when our reporter Egawa Tasuku stopped by his nearest branch to try them, he was surprised to find his adult treats were served in a Pokémon-branded box with sweet, colourful packaging.

The box didn’t seem entirely on-brand with the mature “adult” marketing behind the new doughnuts, but given that the chain is still promoting its Pokémon dougnuts, released on 8 November, Tasuku saw it as a sweet bonus — you can still be an adult and love Pokémon, after all.

While the doughnut box was bright and cheerful, what lay inside was decidedly adult, with no colourful icing or sprinkles to be seen.

Pulling two doughnuts out of the box, he decided to start the taste test with the Adult Pon de Chocolat Rich Cacao, which called to him with its chocolate-upon-chocolate-upon-chocolate look.

Biting into the chewy dough, his taste buds were immediately awakened to the deep, rich, dark flavour of cacao. True to its name, the flavour really was oriented towards adult desires, as the bitterness was on a whole other scale. The acerbic strength of the chocolate surprised Egawa, but it was so well-balanced and delicious that Egawa couldn’t stop eating it.

▼ Next up, we have the Adult Pon de Chocolat Rich Caramel.

This one was slightly tricky to hold, as the entire surface was covered in a sticky caramel-flavoured sauce. Still, Egawa didn’t mind getting his fingers sticky as the reward was mouthfuls of intense bitterness, contrasted with bursts of crunchy almonds and sweet caramel, which made it less bitter than the Cacao variety, though equally delicious.

After munching his way through the new doughnuts, Egawa deemed them to be two of the best new releases at Mister Donut in recent times. They looked and tasted top class, with a serious bitterness that defied the cute packaging they came in. While it’s not guaranteed that you’ll get a Pokémon box at every branch, it turned out to be a nice way to represent the yin-and-yang nature of being an adult, whose whims can be swayed by both cute characters and the finer things in life.

Thankfully, though, these high-quality doughnuts don’t come with a luxury price tag, as they’re priced at 216 yen (US$1.47) each for takeout. Because part of being an adult means keeping an eye on the purse strings too!

Photos ©SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]