Taste Test: Dunkin' Donuts Cheese-Topped Donuts

While on a recent trip to Dunkin' Donuts headquarters, they put out a few of their international donuts including their cheese-topped donut from Indonesia. While people weren't exactly jumping for a chance to try it, I had to give it a go.

They actually had two cheese-topped donuts from Indonesia set out on a table: a glazed yeast donut and a chocolate frosted yeast donut. The glazed ones were covered in shredded parmesan cheese, while the chocolate donuts sported a sprinkle of parmesan cheese along the outer edge of its ring. I tried them both. Why not? Right?

I'm not going to say I regret it, but I will say the people in Indonesia definitely have different tastes in donuts. The cheese coupled with glazed fried dough made for a disparate paring; it felt like eating two separate things that didn't go together at all. The parmesan added that hard cheese texture as well as an abundance of sharp saltiness that felt jarring against the sticky, airy, soft donut. The chocolate donut was a little better in that it had a good deal less cheese so that the two were a little better balanced but still weird.

I can't imagine these cheese-topped donuts working out here in the U.S. Although it does make me wonder if any donut chain would make a savory donut with melted cheese (I was told Dunkin' has no plans to do something and it's not something they're really looking at) similar to a bagel.

I did see donuts with pistachio icing on the table, which sounds like something that might work here. I had an internal debate about trying it but was stuffed and all sugared out at that point.