Eating in quarantine: Maverick’s Donut Company

So, I won’t be going out for a meal I can review in the near future. But I still gotta ear, and now I have more time to write too. So I shall turn my culinary scribblings to delivery/carry out from local purveyors of fine food, as well as the occasional at home creation of my own. (No, I’m not on the bread baking train, at least not yet).

If you can’t go out for food, bring the food to you. And it’s a good way to support the local businesses that are hurting for business during the pandemic. So with the motto of #TreatYourself in mind, I dialed up upper eats to try local fancy donut company Maverick’s Donut Company for the first time…and they were unavailable. And so I tried again the next day…and they were unavailable. But then Wednesday morning…success!

Maverick’s Byward Market location is closed for the time being, but the Bank and Heron location is open for carry out and delivery. I logged into the app not longer after their 10AM opening, because I’ve heard the popular selections can go fast. And indeed, two of the ones I was keen to try were not available. Still, I picked my six and placed my order.

And 30 minutes later I was meeting my Uber Driver at the curb wearing my winter gloves, making brief small talk with the driver from a safe distance as we did the hand off of the box of delicious goodness. Back upstairs, gloves off, hands washed, and we were ready to feast. Don’t they all look so pretty?

I’ll do a donut by donut review. Did I eat all six in one day? That’s not covered by ATIP; I’ll never tell.

There are two categories of donuts at Maverick’s – the classics at $2.25/each or $22.95/dozen, and the signature at $3.25/each or $33.15/dozen. Pricy, but you get what you pay for. And this ain’t Tim Hortons, even in theirdreams. I’ll review each donut but they were all just so fresh and quality, made with care.

I’ll start with the classics, and in the order I ate them. Over, um, many days…

Cinnamon Sugar Classic: The first one I tried, and probably my favourite of the bunch. A fresh vanilla cake donut that was still a little warm and had that crunch of freshness around the fluffy, most interior. And the cinnamon sugar, mmm, so flavourful and lip smacking. A classic done right.

Chocolate Dip Classic: Chocolate cake this time with that fresh fluffy crunchy texture, and chocolate cakey flavour. Sampling the dip separately you also get actual chocolate flavour in the frosting too, which you don’t always at you know who.

Vanilla Sparkle Classic: Again, the vanilla cake base, crunchy fluffy moist, with a vanilla glaze to hold on a boatload of traditional colourful sprinkles. Well executed, but not my favourite of the classics.

Now, on to the signature donuts.

Chocolate Peanut Butter: Vanilla cake base with chocolate frosting, peanut butter cream, and sprinkled on top. I’m a big chocolate peanut butter fan (Reese Peanut Butter Cups what up?!) so I was excited, but I don’t think this one executed as well as it could have. Biggest miss was that they used a vanilla cake base and not chocolate; I was really surprised to find that. Chocolate frosting was good, but it didn’t have the strength to hold up the chocolate pillar on its own. The peanut butter frosting was light and fluffy and had a subtle peanut butter taste – maybe a tad too subtle? It was generous and went down into the donut hole. The peanut bits on top were a nice textural note. All in all, it felt like it didn’t quite connect. A solid double, not a home run.

Lemon Ricotta: A vanilla cake base again with lemon frosting and lemon cream with little fruit bits I couldn’t identify – maybe some sort of candied lemon? Again, it was good, but not great. Could have been more lemony was my takeaway.

And that’s it. If you're doing some at-home modelling you may have noted that was five donuts – I ordered two of the chocolate peanut butter. A few were unavailable that I’d like to try the Cinnamon Swirl in the classics, and Oreo Nirvana in the signatures. The S’mores is popular but I’m not a big smore guy (don’t care for marshmallows) and I’m not sure about Maple Bacon.

Overall, I thought these donuts were great and I’ll have them again. They’re quality, flavourful, and oh so fresh. Tim’s is more an every day donut; these are a well-deserved #TreatYourself. And while the signatures may get the attention, I think the classics are where they standout. That Cinnamon Sugar Classic was simply outstanding.

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Eating off the Hill: Tim Horton's Dream donuts the real #DonutGate?

While #DonutGate went viral earlier this week when Prime Minister Trudeau bought donuts at a local donut shop in Winnipeg and something something drama, I have been preparing this review of Tim Hortons' new Dream donuts for more than a week (eating these all in a day would make me sick) -- I'm not just trying to jump on the #DonutGate gravy train -- frosting train?

Because having two price ranges of donuts seemingly chosen at random wasn't enough, Tim Hortons Labs has unveiled three new slightly fancier, even more expensive donuts on an unsuspecting populace. I mean, why is the Chocolate Glazed 99 cents and the Apple Fritter $1.19? I mean, it doesn't even have any apple in it! You're charging me a 20 cent lie premium.

Anyway, back to their shareholder's dream donuts, at $1.99 each, there's the Dulce de Leche, the Strawberry Confetti, and the Chocolate Truffle. I shall now review them, from least best to best.

Strawberry Confetti

While this is the dreamiest-looking of the three donuts, it's also the least best taste-wise -- and, as we all know, it's what's inside that counts. The Strawberry Confetti is a basic plain yeast donut with a pink glaze (or fondant, if you want to be pretentious/accurate), a swirl of pink frosting in the middle, and assorted sprinkles. I think, based on the name, that the glaze and frosting are supposed to taste like strawberry. If so though, I couldn't tell. No hint of strawberry whatsoever.

Chocolate Truffle

I'm a chocolate fan, so the Chocolate Truffle was certainly in contender for best Dream donut. It's their standard frosted chocolate cake donut but, in addition to the swirl of chocolate frosting in the hole and a few mini chocolate chip sprinkles, they have sliced the donut like a sandwich and inserted more frosting before putting it back together. I applaud the initiative in finding more ways to up the chocolate frosting levels. Still, despite all that, it feels a little one note. And it's not exactly Lindt-level chocolate either. Good concept, held back by ingredient quality.

Dulce de Leche

The donut that will allow all your Latin friends to smugly lord their Spanish pronunciation skills over you, my favourite Dream donut was the Dulce de Leche. It's a cakey no-hole donut with a caramel dollop on top and the promise of a caramel filling, all dusted in cinnamon sugar. I'm even more about the caramel than the chocolate, but I really didn't get much hints of caramel from the dollop on top and they really cheated me, as they usually do, on the filling. But what made it my fav of the three, other than being the only one that's flavour-wise somewhat different from their usual donut menu, was the cinnamon. On a chilly evening, it made for a tasty post-Nando's desert.

And with that, hey now, the dream is over. And to make penance, and in solidarity with our #DonutGate leader, my next donuts will be from a locally-owned purveyor -- I hear Suzy Q's is great.

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