We indulge in all five new offerings to determine how the new ones compare with those of autumns past.

Even though the outdoors in Japan still feels decidedly like summer, food makers have already begun shifting their focus to autumn selections. That grouping includes the highly anticipated release of this year’s Mister Donut‘s autumn-themed donuts.

After learning that the popular donut chain would be significantly renewing its offerings from last year’s lineup, we decided to do a little digging into the past to see just how much the chain’s autumn-themed donuts have evolved since their introduction. The results of our research are summarized in the chart below.

While this is the sixth consecutive year that Mister Donut has sold sweet potato-flavored donuts, there’s not a single 100-percent carry-over from years past in this year’s lineup. Interestingly, even the Daigaku-imo and Sweet Potato donuts, first introduced in 2019, aren’t making an appearance this year for the first time ever. Would this be a cause for crying, or would the new donuts more than make up for the loss of the old ones?

There was only one way to find out, so we headed to our local Mister Donut branch after this year’s autumn flavors were released on August 28.

▼ Mister Donut’s five autumn-themed donuts of 2o24

We elected to focus on the sweet potato offerings first, starting with the Fragrant Brulée (Kobashi Buryure) donut. While the brulée style of donut was first introduced in 2022 for the Mitsu-imo Brulée donut and returned the following year exactly as is, the chain announced that it would be adjusting its ratio of Beni Haruka and Anno-imo varieties of sweet potato mixed within, along with changing the texture of the dough to be a bit more viscous, for this year’s iteration.

The outside of the pastry was caramelized and sprinkled with sugar. At the time of purchase, the sugar coated its entire surface in a gentle white dusting, but after running for cover in heavy rain, it had gotten a little jostled and lost part of its blanket. Nevertheless, the outside was crispy and paired well with the moist sweet potato inner dough. The whole taste left us with the impression of having eaten a sweet potato-flavored brulée.

▼ Fragrant Brulée donut (194 yen/US$1.32)

Next up was the Sticky Sweet Potato Honey (Torori Mitsu-imo Mitsu) donut. A past donut similar to this used to have syrup blended into the dough, but this year’s version has a thick and sticky mitsu-imo glaze on the outside. We thought the contrast between the previous versions of this donut was more striking than the contrast between the brulée-style line.

▼ Sticky Sweet Potato Honey donut (172 yen)

The Salty Butter Cream (Shio Bataa Kuriimu) donut was the third and final sweet potato-themed treat. It bore a strong resemblance to the standard Sweet Potato donut of years past, but this time the top was covered in a luxurious layer of salted butter cream. A sprinkling of imo-kenpi (strips of fried and sweetened sweet potatoes) decorated the ring of that. Perhaps it’s the true spiritual successor of the Imo-kenpi donut that made its one-and-only appearance in 2020.

▼ Salty Butter Cream donut (194 yen)

That brings us to this year’s two completely new chestnut-flavored donuts. These looked quite different from the previous ones, being in the shape of chestnuts with an almost waffle-ironed pattern on the outside. A scattering of chocolate and chestnut flakes also graced the exteriors.

▼ Japanese Chestnut Whipped Cream donut (left) and Angel & Japanese Chestnut Paste donut (right), each 237 yen

First, the Angel & Japanese Chestnut Paste (Angel & Waguri An) donut was hiding a dollop of concentrated chestnut flavor in the center of a bed of whipped cream. It certainly packed a stimulating punch.

Meanwhile, the Japanese Chestnut Whipped Cream (Waguri Whip) donut looked like it was filled with ordinary whipped cream at first glance, but actually, the cream itself held the flavor of Japanese chestnuts. That led to its overall taste being the most consistently chestnut-like of the pairing.

It’s hard for us to pick a single favorite because each of the above donuts shines in its own unique way. We can confidently say that none of this year’s lineup is a complete miss, and the chestnut-flavored offerings add a pleasant element of novelty to the mix.

Luckily, if Mister Donut has whetted your appetite for even more seasonal food and drinks, there are plenty more to be found–such as Starbucks’ latest autumn beverage as well.

Reference: Mister Donut, PR Times (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
All images © SoraNews24
● Want to hear about SoraNews24’s latest articles as soon as they’re published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
[ Read in Japanese ]