Living on your own you can get very lazy when it comes to cooking your own meals every single day. And we all know mom always preached about how beneficial it is to make your own meals, financially and nutritionally. But sometimes you just gotta overlook moms advice, especially when it comes to donuts (or doughnuts. However you would like to spell it.)
Recently I found myself giving into the hype. A friend of mine was telling me about this little donut shop that is to die for. And I would always hear other people talking about how amazing this donut place is. So, I decided to find out for myself, just how extraordinary these donuts were.
At the crack of sunrise, I popped around the corner to the Banbury Cross Donut shop. Yes, the shop was just around the corner from my house and it took me a full year to actually head over and eat some donuts. The night before I hopped on the interwebs and read numerous reviews of the shop. I went with the twelve most popular flavors.
I left and returned home within thirty minutes with this cute little yellow box of donuts. And I'll admit, this was no cheap escapade. 11 dollars for a dozen donuts. I just kept telling myself, "for the internet!"
This was only the first level in the yellow donut box house.
If you've never had a box of a dozen donuts to yourself, it's overwhelming. Staring at a double tiered box of donuts. I don't know where to start I will admit, I was very apprehensive about eating my weight in donuts. But when I opened the box, I was overwhelmed with a, "OHVMY god it smells so gooddd!", I think I might have awoken my roommate with that one...whooopss.
The first donut I took on was the twisted glazed. I ordered two because I thought my dad would want one and boy was I right. The next day he gobbled the other one up. The one pictured above received the good genes of the family. Appearance wise, the donut's got good raised look with great colour to it. I have learned from experience that colour determines the cookedness?.. Although it was a little under-cooked it was wonderful and fluffy and delicious. The ratio of glaze to donut was excruciatingly beautiful. You know those donut that have soo much glaze and it literally falls off when you bite it? This was definitely not one of those donuts. I am gonna have to give this donut a 'Woah-nut' rating.
Next was the traditional glazed donut. Again, "Oh my god". This was literally the same as the twisted donut, but it still managed to blow my mind. My heart melted at the flufflyness to the bite. The glaze has a sort of orange citrusy quality about it. And it just works. Works so well. Woah-nut for this donut!
Chocolate glazed. The raised donuts are just to fluffy and wonderful. Despite a quality bread, the glaze is just so thin and delicate. It's like the popular hipster kid. Guaranteed to show up to the crappy party, but only barely showing up at the end just so they can say they "went to the party".. In short, the glaze, it barely shows up at the end of the bite. Banburys doesn't go short on its chocolate though. The glaze is very rich chocolate.. Chocolate glaze= Alright-nut
Blueberry white cake donut. If you know me at all, you will know that I am not a big fan of blueberry flavored anything. Unless its a baked good consistency. Since this is a cake donut and had loads of positive reviews I figured I'd give it a try. My first reaction was that this donut is definitely a blueberry doughnut. There was loads of "blueberry" flavor to the glaze. It almost has a plasticity taste about it....Not my favorite. This one is like a Taylor Swift of the donut world. You see, it looks beautiful. And it tastes very sweet. But I just donut like it. I just feel like I don't know enough about this donut to like it, if you get what im saying..No-nut for me Taylor Swift donut.
Strawberry. There wasn't a whole lot to this one. Now I know donuts aren't rocket science., but the art of glazing a donut is. The glaze was just there, There wasn't anything too extremely special. It didn't taste like a strawberry donut, but then again when does anything strawberry actually taste strawberry. There just wasn't any sort of outstanding quality that designated it a popular strawb selection..Sorry strawberry, No-nut
At this point, I have turned on the hardcore rap, my go-to 'Lose Yourself' playing because I am so full of donut right now. I am not eating the whole donut, obvs. I'd probably die before I got through two of them. I proceeded to take a half-time to snapchat my struggle right now.
#firstworldproblems. <---yup im bringing that back.
But the show must continue..Chocolate cake with chocolate sprinkles. Nooottt the best looking donut. I may just be bitter because in the shop I had my eyes set on the white cake rainbow sprinkled donut, and I got the half sprinkled chocolate donut. But despite losing a quarter of my well deserved donuts' chocolate sprinkles, it revels on. My eyes got giant when I realized how good this thing is. There was much hype around this donut and, oh my god, the hype has never been more right. God bless the hype, WOah-nut
Rosette. I have no idea what the flavor of this donut is supposed to be, but its gorgeous. Almost too gorgeous to actually eat. I have never witnessed in my life a more beautiful donut (if you can even call it that). I don't know how to approach it. Do I cut it? Do I rip it? Do I bite it? Do I put it up for display at the Met? Thought process: "How do you.....oh! But it has a cinnamon roll aspect to it wait.. now I want to unravel it to see the construction of this design" It acts like it has a filling, but it doesn't. Putting architecture aside, its just a pretty glazed donut. Its almost as if its alter ego would be Harry Styles. I mean, it's versatile, pretty, looks like a cinnamon roll but it's really just a donut.. WOAh-nut little Harry Styles donut.
Apple fritter. The fritter looks like a complex ecosystem. I've never had a fritter before. Once again I am probed with the same questions from the Rosette. Do you bite it, do you cut it, is there a traditional way you eat it. Should I google how to eat a fritter because I've been sitting here for about ten minutes trying to figure out how to take on this son of a fritter. Remember when I said this fritter was a complex being? After taking a very large bite, I can confirm my complex being sentence. It's about the size of my head, and it tasted like a doughnut... Bit of a let down if I'm honest. Was there supposed to be apple in there...cuz i got none of that...maybe a small teenie weenie hint of apple. Fritter gets a Woah-nut for innovation.
Bear Claw. I have, again, never had a bear claw. But I have heard other people I know talking about Bear Claws in general being excellent. It sounds like a delectable treat. Looks like a delectable treat. I mean it LOOKS like a bear claw. I got a left pawed bear, donut know if left claws are better than right claws. Either way this left claw was not my favorite. I feel like someone just took the Cinnamon challenge and stuffed it in and all around a paw shaped donut....Nah-nut.
Cinnamon donut. The bear claw gives me no hope for the INFAMOUS cinnamon donut. The cinnamon donut actually has me scared. There is just so much cinnamon...it kind of looks like a dirt covered donut if I'm honest. Okay. It was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. It;s a fluffy donut covered in a cinnamon crumble. I didn't mind it, but it wasn't my favorite thing in the world. Hmm. Woah-nut for overwhelmingness. No-nut for taste. Sorry cinnamon donut lovers of the world, and sorry Banbury's I didnt enjoy your crowd favorite..mom always said donut follow the crowd, right?
Well, that's the first and last time I will ever be in the same room with a dozen donuts. Don't get me wrong, it was a wonderful experience. Just not one I will ever be repeating ever again. Maybe I'm getting old...that's why I only enjoyed the simple glazed and not the extravagant. If there's anything I learned from this experience, it's that I am not the best food critic...Leave me alone, I did the best I could..
Talk to you soon.
-H.
