I originally came across
Top Pot Donuts at my local Starbucks where they sometimes have Top Pot old-fashioned buttermilk donuts on display for
$1.75 a pop. They tasted pretty good and I wondered how they would be fresh. So when my friend asked me if I wanted anything from Seattle, I asked for some Top Pot Donuts and got a whole dozen!
The company's full name is "Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts" which stands out since most donuts are made by machine or a hand crank. They say "hand-forged" means Top Pot make donuts the old-fashioned way. I'm not clear on what that means but I hope it means they make donuts by hand. Interestingly enough, they also sell their own hand-roasted coffee in their stores which actually makes them a Starbucks competitor as well as a Starbucks supplier.
So how were they? Pretty disappointing. Despite the premium positioning (and premium price!), most of the donuts were overly glazed and "just okay" for me. As you can see they make a regular cake cruller as opposed to my favorite: the French cruller. Why don't most donuts shop make
French crullers anymore? It's because the process is more complicated and therefore more time-consuming, which makes it all the more curious that a donut shop that plays up the craftsmanship aspect of donut-making doesn't make them.
There was one donut in the dozen that stood out in the selection and was a bit different (in a good way) than your garden variety donut. It was this donut below:
It's a blueberry cake donut. Notice how it doesn't suffer from the sugary glaze of the other donuts, alllowing you to actually enjoy the taste of the donut itself. It tastes like a blueberry muffin but with a cake donuts denser texture. It's pretty good!
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