The Mister Donut Ice Bar: “When donuts become ice cream”

This unassuming bar is a big moment in ice-creamology.

As the biggest donut chain in Japan, we often report on Mister Donut adapting their wide range of donuts that are based on other franchises like Calpis or Pokémon.

However, until now rarely had we seen the opposite: an outside food producer base something on Mister Donut.

In honor of the donut shop’s upcoming 50th anniversary, major Japanese food producer Morinaga has concocted the Mister Donut Ice Bar and released it on 16 November for about 150 yen (US$1.44).

This ice cream bar is based on the long-selling Angel Cream donut which is a donut dusted with powdered sugar and filled with an extra fluffy and sweet whipped cream.

It seemed rather simple at a glance but after buying and trying one out, I was blown away by the attention to detail that this bar actually had.

First, let’s break down the structure of the Mister Donut Ice Bar. The ice cream itself looks like plain vanilla, but is actually a sweet whipped cream flavor. This is coated with a chocolate that is mixed with langue-de-chat (“cat’s tongue cookies”) and “donut flavored chips,” which I can only assume are chocolate chips with a donut flavor.

Despite the fancy description I was still expecting more or less a standard ice cream and chocolate snack. But the first bite was a total surprise, the ice cream’s taste was not at all what I was expecting and much more like the fluffy filling of a donut.

But what was most amazing was the coating. The addition of langue-de-chat seemed odd at first but made total sense after eating it. The sweet and powdery texture of the cookies felt almost exactly like the powdered sugar on top of the Angel Cream donut was in my mouth!

It was a subtle but brilliant touch that really elevated this ice cream bar to a real work of art. In both taste and texture they carried the experience of eating a donut into the medium of ice cream amazingly well.

Truth be told, even if this was just a standard ice cream bar with a remotely donut-y taste, I’d still be satisfied. However, Morinaga went above and beyond with this creation and really put a lot of effort into paying homage to Mister Donut with it. I’m not sure why they did it, but I’m glad they did.

They’re on sale now at convenience stores all over Japan and definitely worth checking out.

Meanwhile, we can only hope Mister Donut will reciprocate with a donut based on one of Morinaga’s many products – just as long as it isn’t their tomato yogurt.

Photos: ©SoraNews24
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