It goes without saying that some things are popular for the sake of being popular. I remember back to my first visit to the original location of Voodoo Doughnut over 6 years ago. Viv and I were impressed with the novelty of it all, but not so much with some of their wackier creations. With that being said, there were some gems to be found, but one could only take so much of random cereal and cookies atop sweet glaze. At the time, they popularized the maple bacon donut where it is pretty much commonplace these days.
As we were on our way out of Portland, we stopped by Voodoo Too for ol' times sake. Going a bit overboard, we got a pretty decent selection of donuts to go. My son was all over the Marshall Mathers with its tongue & cheek use of mini-M&M's atop an obscene amount of vanilla frosting. Well, I couldn't stand it, but my son loved every bite of the sickingly sweet combination. At the very least, the cake donut itself was actually decently moist. Of course we couldn't get out of their without getting their famous Voodoo Doll. Essentially a raspberry jelly-filled yeast donut with chocolate glaze (shaped into a voodoo doll with a pretzel stick), this was also rather sweet.
For myself, I actually enjoyed the Mango Tango even though it was filled completely with mango jelly and sweet vanilla frosting on top. What saved this donut was the relatively mild-tasting mango filling while the donut itself was soft and airy. The Buttermilk Bar was slightly different due to the buttermilk dough. It was actually not overly sweet due to the absence of toppings (only a light glaze). It was pretty moist though. Similar to the Marshall Mathers (being a cake donut with lots of vanilla frosting), the Spinkle Donut was sweet with crunchy sprinkles on top.
Let's not forget the donut that shocked everyone when it was first introduced - The Bacon Maple Bar. I actually liked it the first time I tried it, but this time around, the bacon was not really that crispy and in fact, was too fatty and chewy. Being super sweet didn't help either. Another classic is the Old Dirty Bastard with chocolate frosting, Oreos and Peanut Butter. Yes, this was pretty darn sweet and heavy. As much as the name sounds cool, not one of my favorites. The weird triangle-looking thing on the plate was the Maple Blazer Blunt. Yes, it is what you think it is... This yeast donut was made to look like a blunt. In terms of actual flavor, it was simply a cinnamon sugar donut.
Remember what I said about super sweet donuts with cereal on top? Well, we had some in the Loop Donut and Captain, My Captain Donut. Both with vanilla frosting and a good amount of cereal. Novelty in my books and not very tasty in comparison to some of the aforementioned donuts. The plain-looking one on the top of the plate was the Blueberry cake donut. Simple, yet actually good where the cake was not too dense, not too sweet. That pretty much sums up what you need to do if you decide to visit Voodoo. Resist the funky-looking donuts and go with the ones that are simpler. They will not be over-the-top in terms of sweetness and you might actually like it.
The Good:
- Wide variety
- Novelty at its best
The Bad:
- If you go with the novelty donuts, they are too sweet and aren't actually very good
- Waits during peak times
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