Doughnut chain Mister Donut aren’t shy about experimenting with traditional Japanese tastes and ingredients in their various seasonal creations. Previously they’ve given us matcha doughnuts which are flavoured with the ubiquitous bitter green tea, and even some sakura snacks for springtime.

The latest Japanese idea they’ve been playing with is mochi doughnuts, inspired by the squishy rice cakes which are a massive part of traditional Japanese sweets culture. The idea behind Mister Donut’s mochi lineup is that the doughnuts will retain their mochi-like soft texture indefinitely. This special quality was created in association with ‘Mochi Cream Japan’, a Japanese sweets specialist.

The lineup is called ‘Mochi Cream Doughnuts Collection’ and consists of six new treats for mochi fans to try out.

The first two are inspired by, and also look the spitting image of, daifuku, a mochi sweet which is often sold during the summer. The original consists of a filling (such as fruit, red bean paste, or whipped cream) wrapped in soft white rice cake. The Mister Donut version is a choux doughnut with a consistency similar to mochi, topped with whipped cream and strawberry jam and wrapped up with gyuhi, an even softer form of mochi dough.

The lemon version is exactly the same, but with lemon jelly instead of strawberry jam.

The ‘Lemon Mochi Cream French’ was created from doughnut dough laced with mochi filling, thanks to Mochi Cream Japan. The doughnut sandwiches a lemon jelly filling and is topped with white chocolate.

The ‘Pon de Mochi Cream’ riffs on Mister Donut’s classic ‘Pon de Ring’ shape, with the same mochi filling dough base with whipped cream inside.

‘Pon de Ichigo Mochi Cream’ is a strawberry rendition, with strawberry jam filling and strawberry chocolate topping.

The last one goes further into the traditional Japanese theme with a red bean paste and white chocolate topping on a mochi filling choux doughnut base.

All these squishy doughnut creations can be found in branches of Mister Donut all over Japan from 3rd July 2020 until around the beginning of August.