The Japanese donut

Pon de Ring

Brand: Mister Donut

Price: 162 yen

Place of purchase: Mister Donut

Rating:

The 'Pon de Ring' is relatively new in the greater scale of things. They came out in 2003. When I first came to Japan in 2000 my friends and I went to Mister Donut a lot. When I came back between 2002 and 2004 I went occasionally. And on one of those occasional visits I noticed this 'new' addition to the donut line up. I didn't try it right away, because to be honest it didn't look as appealing as there other offerings. But when I eventually tasted it, I liked it. It is now a regular choice when I am buying donuts for the whole family - I'll always put a least one pon de ring in the selection.

While I always buy at least one (because it is a favorite of both my Mother-in-law and my Father-in-law), I rarely eat it myself. I did have one over the Christmas break. They are really nice, but I just happen to prefer other flavors. If you want to try a 'Japanese' donut you have to try the Pon de Ring at least once. You can probably get something similar in other countries now, but I'm pretty sure this type of mochi like chewy donut was born in Japan! In order to write this review I was looking for the price of the Pon de Ring. As I temporarily misplaced my receipt I had a look online. Just a word of caution: all of the articles I skimmed had the wrong price. Thankfully I found my receipt from today and confirmed that in 2025 the take out price of a Pon de Ring is 162 yen, including tax.