What is mochi? Japanese folklore says that mochi is made by rabbits on the moon. But in reality it's a rice cake made from a glutinous rice. No, not our American interpretation of crunchy rice cake, but more of a gummy, gluey kind of creation. All this to say I didn't know what to expect when having one. Would it be light and fluffy like a Krispy Kreme donut or thick and mealy like a cake donut.
I tried going opening weekend around 3 PM, and by then they were totally out of donuts. So I gave them some time to get the opening kinks out and returned at 4 PM on a Tuesday.
So the interior is spotless and has little places where you can take your photo/pose with your donuts. But if you come at 4 pm you will be posing with no-chi donuts. They had 11 donuts left, of which only three flavor choices. But hey, I like eclectic flavors so let's taste one. Also, you can only buy a quantity of one if you also buy a drink. Ok...I'm not committing to three donuts yet, how about a drink?
So you order from a kiosk, and not from a person and the kiosk is well, confusing. I tried to order a boba. What kind of additions do I want? Do I want stir fried boba balls? No, I just want normal boba balls, but that's not an option. The kiosk also asks me for a tip. Do I want to leave 15, 20 or 25% to the nameless machine taking my order in a way that I can't get what I want. But ok, I'm feeling generous, here's your tip. Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.
So my boba comes with no boba pearls because I order it wrong, and the person in front of me ordered the last donut of one of the three flavors, leaving me with one of two eclectic choices. I get the matcha tea. I hear matcha is full of antioxidants.
I pull off one of the donut pearls, and. Meh. It's more like a cake donut, if that's what you're looking for. I'm not really a fan of the cake style donuts, too thick for my taste, but if you like the cake style I still don't think you'll like these. The donut was greasy and tasted of dirty oil. I took two bites, saved the rest to share, and as each person took a pearl of the donut off, each gave the same disappointing reaction.
The boba tea that I got which was decidedly not a boba tea, provided the same underwhelming reaction. I ordered 50% sweetness, glad not 100% because it was sickeningly, cloyingly sweet.
I hate to write such an underwhelming review and that's why I'm giving them 3 stars which is definitely generous compared to how I actually feel about the experience. I know Longmont needs interesting restaurants and food choices. I just hope they can make some constructive changes to make it a place people would like to return to again and again. Like I said, it is cute and would make a great adventure for the community. read more