7-Eleven Japan now sells fresh-fried doughnuts, but are they any good?【Taste test】

A new release set to shake up the Japanese convenience store food scene.

In Japan, convenience store food is a cut above what you’d find at similar stores overseas, but even we had doubts when we heard that 7-Eleven would now be selling doughnuts fried fresh in store. However, our reporter Go Hatori assured us the doughnuts would be incredible, as he’d previously tried them in March when his local store sold them as part of a limited-time trial.

With the doughnuts now being rolled out as a permanent item at stores in Saitama, Chiba and Tokyo from 3 September, it appears Go wasn’t the only one who had high praise for the treats, but that still raises the question: Are the new doughnuts as good as the ones sold during the trial?

▼ Go dashed out to our nearest 7-Eleven to find out.

The display by the registers on the counter revealed there were three types of doughnut available: Maple (140 yen [US$0.96]), Chocolate (160 yen), and Custard (160 yen). As he wasn’t in the mood for custard, Go purchased the Maple and Chocolate and brought them back to the office for a taste test.

▼ When the store clerk handed him his doughnuts, he was pleased to see two sticks of sugar attached to the bag.

In Go’s opinion, the sugar is essential to the doughnuts, because when you open the bag and get a look at the fried rings of dough inside, they look a bit…well, plain.

This was exactly how Go remembered the doughnuts last time he ate them, though, and when he tore one of them in two, the inside looked just as fluffy and airy as he’d remembered.

Though he was tempted to bite into the doughnut immediately, there was one thing he had to do first.

▼ Sprinkle the treats with sugar.

▼ Now it was time to bite into them, and as he did, he couldn’t hold back a smile.

With specks of sugar glistening around his lips, Go excitedly told us that the doughnuts were just as delicious as he’d remembered. The exterior was slightly crunchy in places, which served to accentuate the light softness inside the doughnut, and he recommends taking staff up on their offer to heat them up for you, because it makes them taste even more delicious.

▼ As for the sugar, he also has a hack for how to best use it to enhance the flavours.

You can do what he did, and simply sprinkle the sugar on top of the doughnuts and then dip the ends into the crystals as you eat them…

…but after trying it this way, he realises an even better way to use the sugar would be to pour it into the bag, close it up again and then shake it all together, to create a more even dusting around the entire surface of the doughnuts.

Either way, though, you can’t go wrong with the combination of sugar and fried doughnut, and Go says they don’t need any extra accoutrements as they’re perfectly delicious and fried to perfection. The chocolate is particularly rich and tasty, and as he ate them both, he found himself craving a glass of cold milk, so you might want to think about grabbing some milk if you buy them.

The doughnuts are so good that Go reckons they might even give Mister Donut a run for their money, so be sure to keep an eye out for the new treats, along with these 10 other things you should buy at 7-Eleven.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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