Mister Donut saw all the Mocchurin that it had made, and they were very good…too good, in fact.

Sadly, not every attempted innovation in the world of sweets pans out. Sometimes, would-be mad geniuses turn out to simply be madmen, and humanity shuns their too-bold-for-their-own-good creations such as spaghetti-flavored popsicles and cakes with bits of tuna in them.

As Japan’s favorite donut chain for the past few decades, though, Mister Donut has a very good track record when it comes to making additions to its product lineup, so it’s kind of surprising to hear that they’re cancelling the upcoming release of new donuts in their extra-soft Mocchurin series. That’s not because customers haven’t shown a liking for the Mocchurin donuts, though, but because Mister Donut has deemed that they’re too popular to exist, at least for the time being.

Mister Donut first started serving up Mocchurin donuts (which get their name from mocchiri, a Japanese word describing something pillowy soft) in June of 2025. They’re so soft that they almost feel like a dessert beverage. We quickly fell in love with them after a taste test, and that sentiment quickly swept across the rest of Japan too.

As with a lot of new food items in Japan, the Mocchurin started out as a limited-time, test-the-waters sort of thing. Seeing the extremely positive response, Mister Donut geared up for a relaunch, which finally came about six weeks ago, on May 14, for customers using the chain’s mobile order app and then on June 3 for those ordering regularly at in-store registers. To celebrate the Mocchurin’s return, Mister Donut even added a new flavor, strawberry, to the lineup alongside kinako (roasted soybean powder) and mitarashi (sweet soy glaze).

The strawberry Mocchurin was only scheduled to be available until the end of June, but Mister Donut said the kinako and mitarashi versions would be sticking around, supplies permitting, until mid-August. They also said there would be a “round two” of the Mocchurin return with a new flavor to be introduced in July.

But while the strawberry Mocchurin is indeed now gone, Mister Donut has announced that the kinako and mitarashi will now be saying goodbye sometime in mid-July, and that the second-round new Mocchurin flavor, without ever being revealed, has been cancelled. Why? Because demand for the donuts has been so high that the chain says it’s worried about damaging the atmosphere at its shops. In its statement on the matter, Mister Donut says:

“It is expected that the launch of the second-round Mocchurin would cause conditions at shops to become even more crowded, and so to avoid causing trouble or annoyance to our customers, we have decided to cancel sale of the product…[We] deeply apologize for being unable to meet the expectations of our customers, particularly those who were looking forward [to the new Mocchurin].”

▼ The kinako (left) and mitarashi (right) Mocchurin. Get ‘em while you can, because they’re all we’re getting.

The idea of “We’re shouldn’t sell something if we’re going to sell too many of them” might seem unnatural for a profit-driven entity like Mister Donut, but in recent months there’s been an increasing amount of friction in consumer spaces regarding limited-time product launches in Japan. For example, intense demand for certain Happy Meal items have given the Golden Arches a public relations black-eye and led to the “indefinite postponement” of a planned One Piece promotion at McDonald’s Japan. Sure, donuts don’t have the same sort of scalper-attracting resale market as anime merch does, but a sudden sharp spike in customer traffic still means many more people trying to cram themselves into a Mister Donut shop than it was likely designed to comfortably hold. And while customers specifically coming to try the Mocchurin, especially as a topic-of-conversation novelty, might not mind wading through the crowds, the extra congestion is nothing more than a negative for other customers who just want to get some of Mister Donut’s regular permanent-menu sweets.

That said, this probably isn’t going to be the permanent end of the Mocchurin line. In its statement on the round two cancellation, Mister Donut thanked its customers for enjoying the new sweets, and the most likely eventual outcome is yet another relaunch of the line once the chain can figure out a smoother way to do it.

Source: PR Times
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times (1, 2)
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