Was looking forward to one of their wonderful, albeit overly sweet; so I have to be in the mood for it - apple fritters.
Even though I wasn't able to oblige my craving, my dad picked one up early-mid Thursday afternoon for himself and was HORRIBLY DISAPPOINTED!!
- Compared to their usual size, this time they were:
Pitifully small:
6" as opposed to their usual 8" size
That's 1/4 smaller than usual.
Overly thick:
2.5" thick - Is this a deep dish apple pie or a fritter?
Texture was a disappointment to say the least!
Thick, heavy, doughy, raw like and not in a gooey delightfully moist way.
But yet when eaten makes your mouth feel dry.
Very little flavor! The dough was just lacking in flavor and sweetness, needing more cinnamon and more sugar as well. A fritter needs to have a sweetness to the dough, which this lacked.
Instead, they relied on what little flavor was in the premade apple filling, and the dough just sucked it right out of it. You could see it there, the cinnamon layer in the dough, but the flavor just was not there. Had that premade apple filling chewyness to the apple too, that you just can't cook out of premade filling.
Very deceiving, looked beautiful as though it should've had so much more flavorful and wonderfully textured. As they used to be. But just didn't deliver at all.
Their donuts have always been much too sweet to eat regularly, and I have only ever been able to enjoy them on a non-empty stomach, meaning not for breakfast; lest they make me feel sick. But for decades, I have enjoyed them and craved them from time to time with somewhat regularity.
Positive: There were plenty of Apple chunks in it.
All for $3.50?!
They can do better, and they used to.
Feeling jipped!
As for me,
The last time I was here last year, they were out of these, so I got a maple bar.
- Maple Bar assessment then, matches the fritter experience now, at:
Size:
PITIFULLY SMALL and TINY!
Worse than fritter.
Convenience/grocery store sizes - about 1/4 the usual size for Sister's Bakery of years prior.
And frankly, about as undelightfully pedestrian, in fact worse.
These things used to be as long as my forearm!!
Texture:
Dried out, and not in a "this donut is old" way. No, in a way that they have changed the recipe, how they make them, or something. Bland, not very sweet at all.
Glutinous springy texture that didnt deliver anything but dried out sponge without all the moist chewy tenderness of a good donut.
Did the "tear test" of pulling apart the dough and doesn't hold and stretch, just rips.
Think, biting into a sea sponge.
ZERO STARS!!
I wouldn't even eat this for free, not worth the calories and processed sugar if you don't get immense enjoyment out of it.
First experienced in the 90's by this Oregon native and now local, what was once a great donut of a wonderfully large nature and a decent value (always a bit pricy, size making up for it somewhat); heavy gut bomb taken into account; has now, sadly been ruined.
New owners?
Saddened by what has become of their donuts.
Won't be back until they go back to their roots.
Ps. Please stop using orange petroleum food dye in your glaze - crude oil is not a food. Use vegetable based, or better yet, a little orange juice. The environment and your body will thank you. read more