Noodle chain Marugame rolls out strawberry milk udon donuts for new spring sweets lineup

These sweet treats–made not from udon flour but from actual mashed udon noodles–are delightfully chewy and pack a flavorful punch.

Last summer, “udonuts,” donut bites made from udon noodle flour, became a bit of a craze in Japan. Developed and sold by udon chain Marugame Seimen, the brand is now adding three new flavors to its lineup that will go on sale at restaurant locations nationwide on April 15. The standout star is definitely the new strawberry milk flavor, which contains actual pieces of strawberry inside of the dough and a strawberry milk-flavored powder for an outer coating. It will also be the first udonut with a dipping sauce, resulting in a sweet and tart taste that tingles your taste buds with every bite.

▼ New strawberry milk udonut flavor (350 yen [US$2.44] for five pieces)

In addition to the currently offered kibi sato (millet sugar) flavor, the two other new flavors to join the mix are kinako (roasted soybean flour) and mitarashi (a soy sauce and sugar glaze typically used on a certain kind of dumpling), both of which will cost 300 yen for five pieces.

▼ The delicately aromatic kinako flavor (middle left) and the salty-sweet mitarashi flavor (back right)

To promote the new udonuts, Marugame Seimen has enlisted the help of two popular singers as brand ambassadors: Hokuto Matsumura and Kaito Takahashi, the former a member of SixTONES and the latter a member of King & Prince. The duo are now starring in a commercial for the new udonuts that is currently airing in Japan, in which they almost fully ad lib the final scene to showcase their fun, natural dynamic.

▼ The newly released udonuts commercial

We caught up with the pair at a press conference, during which they expressed their excitement to be chosen as brand ambassadors as well as their slight nerves to be hosting the conference by themselves. Thankfully, they appeared to relax more and more as the event went on. When asked about his recommendation for eating the strawberry milk flavor, Kaito suggested dipping a piece halfway into the sauce to experience a perfect balance of sweet and tart flavors. He further joked that at his future concerts, he hopes to serve his crying audience members the new flavor when he’s singing bittersweet love songs so that the complexity of the emotions can be mirrored by the multifaceted flavor.

Both of them were enamored with a large strawberry milk udonut piece of art made for the event, with Hokuto in particular admiring the small details of its production. He also shared that he’s partial to the new kinako flavor.

With just a short wait for the new udonuts remaining, it might be hard to hold back any immediate snack attacks. If you do have one, however, we might suggest tiding yourself over with a more traditional kind of donut at Mister Donut, where you can also now more easily predict the music that will be played at different times throughout the day.

Featured image: PR Times
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