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Are Mister Donut’s new sakura and matcha doughnuts all they’ve been hyped up to be?

Oona McGee Mar 15, 2021
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A 161-year-old green tea company from Kyoto takes the helm for new “Blooming Matcha” collection.

With the cherry blossoms about to bloom around Japan, Mister Donut is celebrating with the prettiest doughnut range we’ve seen in a long time, featuring the very Japanese flavours of sakura and matcha.

Dubbed “Blooming Matcha“, there are five new doughnuts in the limited-time range, so we popped by our nearest branch of the popular doughnut chain to buy them all as soon as they were released on 12 March.

▼ The doughnuts come in their own specially marked bag with “Misdo meets Gion Tsujiri” printed on it.

Gion Tusjiri is a respected tea manufacturer founded 161 years ago in Uji, Kyoto, a region famous for green tea. The tea specialists are at the helm for this new collection, providing its highly sought-after matcha for the new doughnuts while bringing its expertise in green-tea sweets to the table as well.

This isn’t the first time for the two powerhouses to create limited-edition matcha doughnuts together, but it’s their first to combine powdered green tea with sakura cherry blossoms.

Mister Donut’s Gion Tsujiri ranges are always extremely popular with customers, but how would their latest sakura-themed varieties fare? They certainly looked more beautiful than the ones we’ve seen in the past, so we were keen to see if they were just as beautiful on the inside too.

▼ Out of the five new new doughnuts, three form part of a “Sakura Mochitto” series sold in sakura-and-matcha hued boxes.

▼ First up to the tasting plate is the Sakura Mochitto Doughnut Sakura-an Style (194 yen [US$1.78] takeout, 198 yen eat-in)

This eye-catching offering is finished with two strips of matcha chocolate upon a white chocolate coating and a cherry blossom glaze.

This pretty doughnut isn’t just pink on top–it’s pink on the inside too, thanks to a springy dough that contains cherry blossom flavouring. This gives the deliciously chewy dough a gentle sakura aroma which, when combined with the sweet cherry blossom glaze, creates an irresistible party of floral flavours on the tongue.

▼ The taste of springtime in Japan.

▼ Next up is the Sakura Mochitto Doughnut Uji Matcha Whip (194 yen takeout, 198 yen eat-in)

This beauty is dusted in icing sugar and coated in white chocolate on one side, with a topping of sakura-coloured roasted mochi pieces that allow you to enjoy a delicious combination of textures.

This doughnut comes in two pieces, with a filling of Uji matcha whipped cream sandwiched in between. The cream centre makes this one significantly sweeter than the Sakura-An style version, and the crunchy pieces create an exciting texture to contrast with the “mochitto” (“springy”) texture of the sakura doughnut.

▼ The last doughnut in the Sakura Mochitto series is the Doughnut Uji Matcha Choco (194 yen takeout, 198 yen eat-in)

This pink-white-green celebration is like a spring fashion show, featuring a sprinkling of sakura-coloured roasted mochi pieces and a slathering of white chocolate sauce against a backdrop of rich green matcha.

The contrast between the green coating and the pink dough is particularly beautiful here, and the flavours are beautifully on par with each other, making this a good choice for those who love matcha and sakura in equal amounts.

The final two doughnuts in the collection combine sakura and matcha with another popular Japanese ingredient: warabimochi (bracken starch dumpling).

▼ Warabimochi Sakura An & Uji Matcha Whip (216 yen takeout, 220 yen eat-in)

Sandwiched inside this pink sakura doughnut is matcha whipped cream, warabimochi, and a cherry blossom bean paste. This is a winning combination, with the warabimochi adding even more of a chewy texture to the already chewy dough, making us feel as if we were tasting the evolution of doughnuts, and opening up the door to a whole new world of tasty possibilities.

▼ The final doughnut in the collection is the Warabimochi Sakura & Uji Matcha Whip (216 yen takeout, 220 yen eat-in)

This pretty creation features a fluffy dough made with sakura, and a partial matcha chocolate coating. Inside is a mouthwatering mix of matcha and sakura whipped creams, swirled around a plump, chewy square of warabimochi. This was a gentle, fluffy take on cherry blossoms and green tea, with the flavours melting on the taste buds before fading away delicately like a pretty pink petal on the wind.

After eating our way through the new Blooming Matcha collection, we’re happy to report that each and every doughnut didn’t just meet our high expectations, they actually exceeded them. Not only are they the prettiest pink-and-green doughnuts we’ve seen, they’re the tastiest too, made with high-quality ingredients and attention to detail that allows a variety of different flavour combinations to shine.

Like Mister Donut’s previous collaborations with Pokémon and French pattiserie chain Pierre Hermé, these are set to be incredibly popular, so if you’d like to taste the flavour of springtime in Japan, now’s the time to do so, before the range wraps up and disappears from stores in mid-April.

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