Mister Donut Croissant Doughnuts

Mister Donut Japan has released a new range of croissant doughnuts. The doughnuts went on sale on April 1 and are called “Mr. Croissant Donut”. The doughnuts are made from croissant dough that is fried and then oven baked. We like that sound of that! This gives the doughnuts a very light and flaky texture.

The Mr. Croissant Donuts come in three different flavours:

Valentine’s Day in Japan 2014

Valentine’s Day in Japan is very different from back home in Australia. The date is the same, February 14th, but in Japan it is all about the chocolates. The tradition in Japan is for the girls to give chocolates to the boys. It is totally up to the girls to show who they like by presenting them with chocolate. The favour is returned to the girls on a special day called White Day, which is celebrated a month later on March 14th. This tradition in Japan of the girls giving to the boys on Valentine's Day is said to have started back in the late 1950s, by a company called Mary Chocolate. They started an advertising campaign along the lines that Valentine's Day is the only day of the year a woman can profess her love through presenting chocolate. Well it has been a very successful campaign and this tradition is still going strong today.

Girls can express their love to that special boy in their life on Valentine’s Day, but it is not as simple as that. There are different types of chocolate giving on Valentine’s Day here in Japan. These include:

Giri-choco (義理チョコ) obligation chocolate given to male friends, work mates, family and bosses. Giri means ("obligation") in Japanese and choco, ("chocolate"). There is no romantic association with giri-choco and it is just chocolate that you have to give to people. These are usually ordinary, inexpensive store brought chocolate and can range in price from 100 yen to 500 yen.

Honmei-choco (本命チョコ) chocolates for that special one who you want to express your love to such as boyfriend, lover or husband. This type of chocolate is special, so it is usually handmade by the girls themselves or is a really expensive chocolate from a store, often presented together with a gift. You are very lucky if you can get honmei-choco on Valentine’s Day!

Tomo-choco (友チョコ) this is chocolate that girls give to friends and is usually inexpensive. This kind of chocolate has become more popular in Japan in recent years.

Jibun-choco (自分チョコ) chocolates that girls just buy for themselves. Sometimes it’s nice to treat yourself to something special.

Various Chocolates on display at a Department Store

Chocolate ranges from the Cheap to very Expensive

Chocolate is the most popular gift for Valentine’s Day in Japan. Other popular gifts include cookies and small cakes. The department stores and supermarkets will be fully stocked with all sorts of chocolate days and weeks before the actual day. There are usually long queues at the stores in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day. Mr Donuts and Krispy Kreme have several special donuts on sale just for Valentine’s Day, while Baskin Robbins called Thirty-one Ice Cream in Japan has some special Valentine’s Ice-Cream.

Mr Donuts has two kinds of their famous Pon de Ring Donuts for Valentine’s Day. They are the Pon de Marshmallow Chocolate, and Pon de Marshmallow Strawberry.

Pon de Marshmallow Chocolate

Pon de Marshmallow Strawberry

Mister Donut Japan

Krispy Kreme has released three limited edition Valentine’s Day flavors. They include The Roasted Almond and Chocolate Donut, Raspberry Jelly and Chocolate Donut, and Caramel and Chocolate Cream Donut. You can pick up a set of two of these donuts in a special Valentine's Day box with a slot for a message card for 600 yen (USD $6). The set is called the Rich Chocolate Gift.

Rick Chocolate Gift Set from Krispy Kreme Japan

Raspberry Jelly and Chocolate Donut

Caramel and Chocolate Cream Donut

Krispy Kreme Japan

Baskin Robbins has four new “flavors of love” including the feature flavor which is amaretto chocolate with pale pink hearts. The other flavors are “Love in Berry” made with raspberry and blueberry ice cream with raspberry chocolate hearts, “Lovestruck Cheescake” made with strawberry cheesecake ice cream with strawberry and cheesecake bits and a fudge ribbon, and “Love Potion 31” made with raspberry and white chocolate ice cream with a raspberry ribbon and chocolate hearts.

Baskin Robbins Flavors of Love Ice Cream 

Love Potion 31 & Lovestruck Cheesecake

Baskin Robbins Japan

Did you know there is also a thing called "Valentine’s Insurance” in Japan? A guy can take out an insurance policy if he feels like he might not receive any chocolates on Valentine’s Day. A box of chocolates will arrive in the mail and he can feel that little bit special on the day.

I hope you have a great Valentine's Day this year wherever you are in the world.

Mister Donut Hello Kitty Halloween Donuts

October is the time for delicious autumn food and snacks and Mister Donut has joined the party with a new range of Hello Kitty Halloween Donuts. This is yet another collaboration between Mister Donut and Hello Kitty after they released a range of popular donuts back in April.

The special edition Hello Kitty Halloween Donuts come in either pumpkin or strawberry flavours. They include a Jack-o-lantern Hello Kitty Pumpkin, Jack-o-lantern Hello Kitty Strawberry, Strawberry Ghost Whipped Cream, Pumpkin Old Fashion, Pumpkin Whipped Cream French Cruller, and Pon de Pumpkin.

You can pick up a limited edition Hello Kitty special Halloween box set of seven donuts with a cute Hello Kitty stuffed toy in witches outfit for 1000 yen (USD$10) while stocks last.

Hello Kitty Special Halloween Box

The Hello Kitty Halloween Donuts went on sale on September 25 and will be available for a limited time in Japan.

Mister Donut Jack-o-lantern Hello Kitty Pumpkin 

The Mister Donut Jack-o-lantern Hello Kitty Pumpkin (¥126) features a cute Hello Kitty style Jack-o-lantern face with Hello Kitty’s trade mark pink bow. The pink bow is made from white chocolate and is very tasty.

Jack-o-lantern Hello Kitty Pumpkin Donut

Mister Donut Jack-o-lantern Hello Kitty Strawberry 

The Mister Donut Jack-o-lantern Hello Kitty Strawberry (¥126) features a cute Hello Kitty style Jack-o-lantern face with Hello Kitty’s trade mark pink bow. The donut is hard and crispy with a sweet strawberry topping.

Jack-o-lantern Hello Kitty Strawberry Donut

Mister Donut Ghost Whipped Cream 

The Mister Donut Ghost Whipped Cream (¥147) is a light fluffy donut filled with whipped cream and coated with strawberry flavoured chocolate. This was out favourite of all the Halloween Hello Kitty donuts.

Ghost Whipped Cream Donut

Pumpkin Old Fashion 

The Pumpkin Old Fashion (¥136) is an old fashioned style donut dipped in pumpkin chocolate and topped with sprinkles.

Pumpkin Old Fashion Donut

Pumpkin Whipped Cream French Cruller 

The Pumpkin Whipped Cream French Cruller (¥147) contains pumpkin whipped cream and is coated in pumpkin chocolate and topped with coloured sprinkles. This one was the strongest pumpkin tasting donut out of the lot.

Pumpkin Whipped Cream French Cruller Donut

Pon de Pumpkin 

The Pon de Pumpkin (¥136) is one of Mister Donut’s signature donuts with its chewy mochi like texture. It is coated with pumpkin chocolate and topped with coloured sprinkles.

Pon de Pumpkin Donut

Mister Donut Hello Kitty Halloween Donuts

Mister Donut Halloween Box

Check out my video below about the Hello Kitty Halloween Donuts on my YouTube Channel

Read about more Halloween Snacks in Japan

Mister Donut Calpis Donuts

Mister Donut Japan has released a summer series of donuts in collaboration with Calpis. For those who don’t know, Calpis is a Japanese soft drink with a light, milky taste, similar to a yoghurt or yakult. Mister Donut in April released a Hello Kitty series of donuts that was very popular.

The new Mister Donut Calpis Donuts went on sale on July 7 with Calpis (ramune soda) and Calpis (strawberry) flavours available.

The donuts come in different styles such as the Calpis Star Donut Soda, Calpis Star Donut Strawberry, Calpis Cream Donut, Calpis Pon de Soda, and Calpis French Style Donut Soda.

Calpis Star Donut Soda 

Calpis Star Donut Soda (147 yen) contains Calpis cream and is topped with a soda flavoured chocolate and silver sugar. It was designed especially for Tanabata which coincides with the anniversary of Calpis. The Calpis flavour matches this donut style best in our opinion as its light and fluffy.

Calpis Star Donut Soda

Calpis Cream inside the Calpis Star Donut Soda

Calpis Star Donut Strawberry 

Calpis Star Donut Strawberry (147 yen) contains Calpis cream and is topped with strawberry flavoured chocolate and silver sugar. This was by far and away our favourite as we really liked the sweet strawberry chocolate icing.

Calpis Star Donut Strawberry

Inside the Calpis Star Donut Strawberry

Calpis Cream Donut 

Calpis Cream Donut (136 yen) contains Calpis cream and is coated in sugar.

Calpis Pon de Soda

Calpis Pon de Soda (147 yen) contains Calpis cream as a filling and is partly topped with a soda flavoured chocolate. We found this our least favourite as the Calpis filling and topping was very strong and overpowering.

Calpis Pon de Soda with the cute Mister Donut / Calpis Wrapper

Calpis Pon de Soda Donut

A look inside the Calpis Pon de Soda with Calpis Cream Filling

Calpis French Style Donut 

Calpis French Style Donut Soda (147 yen) contains Calpis cream as a filling and is partly topped with a soda flavoured chocolate. The Calpis flavour was also a good match with the French Style donut but it still has a very strong soda flavour.

Calpis French Style Donut waiting to be taken out of the wrapper

Calpis French Style Donut

A look inside the Calpis French Style Donut

Have you tried any of the Mister Donut Calpis Donuts?
Please leave your comments below.

Mister Donut website

Hello Kitty Donuts at Mister Donut

Mister Donut is a popular donut chain in Japan that is famous for their Pon de ring donut line. Mister Donut is often called Misudo (ミスド) for short in Japanese, and is popular from young to old.

This month (April) they released some Hello Kitty donuts, which are just so cute and pretty tasty to boot. The packaging is typical Japan and is very simple and effective. The donuts fit inside a package with Hello Kitty eyes, whiskers and outline. You can see the donut inside and the pink white chocolate ribbon.

The donuts I tried where the French Style Orange Cream, the Green Apple Old Fashioned, the Pon-De Strawberry, Green Apple Whipped Cream Center and the Strawberry Cupcake Pop. All the donuts come with the cute pink chocolate bow (trade mark of Hello Kitty).

French Style Orange Cream (157 yen about USD$1.60) 

The French Style donut has long been a favourite of mine for its light and fluffy texture. This one has a white chocolate coating and is filled with orange cream. The orange cream filling is very strong and I couldn’t eat too many of these. The pink ribbon white chocolate is very nice and super sweet.

Green Apple Old Fashioned (157 yen about USD$1.60)

Not as strong as the orange cream above and really does taste and smell of green apples. This one is topped with a green apple chocolate coating, An unusual flavour for Mister Donut, but very nice at the same time.

Pon De Strawberry (157 yen about USD$1.60) 

The Pon De is one of the most popular donuts at Mister Donut and this one has a nice chewy texture that reminds me of Japanese mochi. It has a strawberry chocolate coating with pieces of dried strawberry, and strawberry cream filling. The strawberry cream filling is nice and is not too over-powering.

Green Apple Whipped Cream Center (157 yen about USD$1.60) 

A simple one that is very tasty with a white chocolate coating and filled with green apple whipped cream. It has the same taste and smell of the Green Apple Old Fashioned above.

Strawberry Cupcake Pop (136 yen about USD$1.38) 

This is an unusual one for Mister Donuts and their first foray into the Cupcake Pop market. It is also very good and just like a cupcake only on a stick. We tried the strawberry chocolate coating one and it also comes in orange and green apple flavours.

The series is only available for April, so will soon finish. Hurry up while you still have the chance!

Mister Donut Japan Website