When you tell people that you’re sampling Portland doughnuts, you generally get two suggestions, depending on who you’re talking to:
- Voodoo Doughnut from people who don’t really eat doughnuts all that often.
- Blue Star Donuts from those people who like coffee, good design, and fancy-pants doughnuts.
I, as I may have mentioned before, am a simple man. I like straightforward desserts. I find that whenever I encounter a fancy dessert on a menu, I read the description and am enticed until I get to the one thing that takes it too far for me (usually some ingredient I don’t like).
Anyway, I went to Blue Star Donuts today and had two doughnuts and a doughnut hole.
They get demerits right off the bat for not having a maple bar, or any other maple doughnut, on the menu. They do sell boxes of maple glazed doughnut holes, so I bought a box. It was maple-y but since it is pre-packaged, the doughnut itself wasn’t all that great.
The OG Glazed doughnut, on the other hand, was pretty darned tasty. I know I just spent some time saying I like simple things, but the addition of the oraxata gives it a cinnamon-y taste that I quite enjoyed.
My second doughnut was the Cointreau Crème Brûlée. Once I noticed it came with a pipette, I knew I was in trouble. The burnt sugar on the top was great, but sadly this Crème Brûlée doughnut pales in comparison to the Crème Brûlée offering from an east coast doughnut place – Doughnut Plant (if you ever have a chance to have a Doughnut Plant doughnut, have two because they are great). Oh man, the Crème Brûlée doughnut from Doughnut Plant is so good. It may be the best doughnut I’ve ever had. The one from Blue Star wasn’t. It was fine, though.
Blue Star makes a fine doughnut, but man, are they pricey! I guess it costs a lot to have such nice stores and designs. Worth checking out when you’re in Portland, but even better if a friend is paying.