Maple syrup is something of a rare food in South Korea. While we do have a number of varieties of maple trees in the country, we do not produce maple syrup, and so it is only imported from Canada and the USA. Being a fairly expensive food, it not a common ingredient, and our pancake syrup is frequently a chemically flavored one.
So, you can imagine that I had a healthy dose of excitement and skepticism when I saw that Krispy Kreme was promoting three special maple donuts for the autumn season. Having had real maple syrup while traveling in Canada and the US, I was really hoping that it was the real deal but was also prepared to be a little let down.
I’m not sure why there is a Maple Festival at Krispy Kreme, so I jumped in my car and drove to the only location in Ulsan.
After arriving at the store, I noticed I was the first person there, so I had my pick of all the delicious looking donuts that had just been put out. I also noticed lots of signs promoting the new donuts, and it looked like the colors were definitely related to Canada, not the US, as there was not a bit of blue anywhere.
I saw that all three Maple Festival donuts were available: the Bacon Maple Ring; the Double Maple Donut, and the Almond Maple Donut.
After my delicious donuts were boxed up, I returned home, and after a bit of a wait, opened up the box to try out the three maple donuts.
When I opened the box, you could really smell the maple syrup! In fact, my whole kitchen smelled like a maple syrup bottle!
The donuts looked a bit melted, but I quickly arranged them on a plate.
I also took the time to cut them in half and was a little sad as the maple syrup filling inside two of the three donuts slowly began to leak onto the plate.
Not wanting to waste any of the delicious liquid gold, I quickly started enjoying the donuts!
The first one that I tried was the Maple Bacon Ring. This donut is supposed to have oven roasted bacon chips and a maple candy icing on the outside, with a plain Krispy Kreme donut for the base.
The Maple Bacon Ring donut is quite salty. The bacon is the predominant flavor in this one. While it was very delicious, I was a little disappointed because you couldn’t really taste the maple flavor. The bacon chips were crisp and salty, and there was a definite salty-sweet mixture that is so popular now, but not much maple taste.
Next I went for the Double Maple Donut. This has a maple syrup filling and strawberry powder, with vanilla icing on top. I imagine that this is called the Double Maple Donut because of the syrup inside and the maple leaf decoration on top.
As you can see from the cross section, there is an ample amount of maple syrup inside. The Double Maple Donut definitely has the flavor of maple syrup to it and was very tasty. I really liked the vanilla icing, but the strawberry powder didn’t taste like strawberries. While the Maple Bacon ring was a bit more delicious, this one definitely won on the maple front.
Finally, it was time for the Almond Maple Donut. This donut came with a mixture of maple products and was the real double maple taste. It had the maple syrup filling inside, and the maple icing on the outside, which was used to keep the almond slices in place.
The Almond Maple Donut was also generously filled with the maple syrup, and I found this one to have the strongest maple flavor. The almonds didn’t add much besides a slightly different texture, as they were not crunchy but actually quite soft. I would say that this one was my favorite because of the strong maple flavor coming from two different sources.
The Maple Festival donuts from South Korea’s Krispy Kreme were certainly tasty. I did notice that the syrup didn’t run as fast as real maple syrup, which leads me to believe that it is not 100% the genuine article. Unfortunately looking at Krispy Kreme’s website didn’t help. Despite that, if you love the taste of maple, I would definitely considering giving these a try!