Taste Test: Review of Starbucks' Trending Hot Chocolate Doughnut

(SPOT.ph) I'm a creature of habit when it comes to my coffee and, by extension, coffee pairings. When I go to Starbucks, it's almost always the Barista's Drink for me, which is a combination of espresso, breve (half milk, half cream), White Chocolate Mocha Sauce, and looots of ice. I pair it with the Everything Bagel, or sometimes the Four Cheese Pizza, or the Belgian Waffle. But more often than not, I always find myself reaching for the sesame-coated bagel if it's available.

But do the rules change when Starbucks releases seasonal sips and eats? I'm not going to lie, it's hard to not feel the slightest temptation to stray from my usuals —harder even when the new offerings look and sound good. And because I've been seeing the Hot Chocolate Doughnut all over my feed, I skipped my go-to recently and switched to a doughnut instead. And since I'm a self-professed basic b*tch, I ordered it with the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. I mean, b*tch might as well go all the way, right?

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A Taste Test of Starbucks' new Hot Chocolate Doughnut

Starbucks launched the Hot Chocolate Doughnut as part of their autumn lineup. This was launched together with the Salted Maple Oat Milk Iced Shaken Espresso and the Hello Kitty drinks: the Apple Pie Cream Frappuccino and the Red Apple Frozen Tea.

The launch of new drinks coincides with returning and new food items too, and the Hot Chocolate Doughnut is part of the latter. The official (read: press release) description of this pillowy treat is it's a "soft doughnut filled with classic hot chocolate ingredients: rich chocolate and fluffy marshmallows, and then finished with more chocolate [topping]."

Starbucks' Hot Chocolate Doughnut is priced at P110 per piece. This is not a bad price point for the literal chocolate bomb that it is compared to the other plainer doughnut items on the Starbucks menu. 

What does the Starbucks' Hot Chocolate Dougnut taste like?

First thing first: It's crucial to make a mental note that when it comes to Starbucks' Hot Chocolate Doughnut, you should eat it while it's warm—so you get that oozing chocolate filling, lava cake-like action, the money shot. For (my own) convenience sake, I ordered it for dine-in, but of course you can also have it to-go and heat it up at home.

As for the taste, the Hot Chocolate Doughnut is basically a chocolate doughnut on steroids. The chocolate top coating is crunchy despite the doughnut being warmed to melt the generous chocolate filling, and for whatever reason (not that it's a bad thing), there's also an added chocolate drizzle on top.

What I like about this chocolate-filled doughnut is that it feels like I'm having chocolate fondue. I take each slice and dip it in the puddle of chocolate on my plate. It's also quite interesting that no matter how much I dip the chocolate-coated doughnut in the melted chocolate filling, it doesn't get to a cloying level of sweetness. What is this sorcery, Starbucks?

The Hot Chocolate Doughnut, in a nutshell, is 40% doughnut and 60% chocolate—a ratio any chocoholic would be in favor of. But you know what was at 0%? The marshmallow.

As mentioned in its description, it should have marshmallow. But when I dissected the doughnut and studied each bite, I found no such thing. Luckily, the absence of marshmallows is a plus —at least for me who is known to scoop them out of my cup of hot chocolate only to set them aside and leave them uneaten. Or I stir my hot chocolate like a mad woman until it gets dissolved into the brown liquid. 

The doughnut used for the Hot Chocolate Doughnut is more or less the same doughnut employed for the house Glazed Doughnut and Chocolate-Dipped Doughnut. It's the right balance of fluffy and dense—but most importantly, it's gigantic and filling. It's as big, if not bigger than, my palm.

If you choose to have the Hot Chocolate Doughnut for dine-in just like I did, be warned that the chocolate filling hardens quickly. The Starbucks branch I went to had its airconditioning unit on full blast which, yes, made my dining experience a respite from the afternoon heat outdoors, but the cold also hardened the melted chocolate filling fast. After a few minutes, the filling had developed into such a thickness that made it harder to scoop.

Should you buy Starbucks' Hot Chocolate Doughnut?

My theory as to why Starbucks' Hot Chocolate Doughnut is all over the foodie communities is because, much like the Triple Chocolate Champorado from The Bistro by LeBlanc, it's all about the theatrics and the Instagrammable factor involved in consuming this doughnut. The photos posted online are largely "food porn" shots of the chocolate filling oozing out of the doughnut.

But much like the once-viral champorado, Starbucks' Hot Chocolate Doughnut is still worth the buy. The amount of chocolate in this pastry is overindulgent in the best way possible, and to have that attached to an affordable price of P110? I'm sold. I just hope time slows down for a bit because the Starbucks Hot Chocolate Doughnut will be available only until November 1—unless Starbucks decides to extend its run for a longer time.

Now everybody say it with me: "Pleaaaase, Starbucks!"

Starbucks' Hot Chocolate Doughnut (P110) is available in stores and for delivery via foodpanda. See list of Starbucks branches in the Philippines.

For more information, check out Starbucks' Facebook page.

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