Cronut Quest in Tokyo, Japan / 東京でクロナッツを食べてみた

We Tried Cronut in Koto-ku in Tokyo, Japan

NYで流行っている「クロナッツ」を食べに、江東区へ

Recently, I heard "cronut" is a huge boom in NYC.

Cronut is made with croissant dough and fried like donuts, which a bakery shop in Soho called "Dominique Ansel Bakery" has introduced in May, 2013.

According to many articles, there're long lines to buy and the waiting time could be 3 hours as if it's Disney rides.

However, I happened to find a Japanese article talking about both the original cronut in NYC and also the similar product which is produced by a Japanese bakery chain called "Banderole."

Banderole's headquarter is based in Shizuoka prefecture and 81 branches started selling Japanized cronuts nationwide from July 1st with their own dough and method.

The difference from the authentic cronut from NYC is Banderole version has been adjusted to Japanese gusto which means it's less sweet and has less calories so that it'll be accepted by not only young but also adult generation.

They've got 4 flavors; Crispy Chocolate, Strawberry Chocolate, Rich Matcha Chocolate, and Smile White Chocolate.

Plus, each shop releases Salty Caramel Chocolate in a limited quantity.

We researched one of the branches in Tokyo and we went to one in Koto-ku, one of the 23 wards located on the east side of Tokyo.

The one we went to was called "B's Cafe Toyocho branch" in a big supermarket building with other fast food eat-ins.

It's about 20 minutes walk from Sumiyoshi station and we walked for a while in summer heat...

We found the bakery and there's no line unlikely NY's cronut.

And we're the only people who got excited and were taking photos of the products.

There're 4 regular flavors so we bought one each to share with 3 of us.

By the way, it says like cronut is the best selling product there.

It mentions that this product is very famous right now in NY at the left side.

On a red slip, it says they sell a half-dozen box for 980 JPY.

From the far left in a clockwise,

Smile White Chocolate;

Crispy Chocolate;

Strawberry Chocolate; and

Rich Matcha Chocolate.

From the side, it's combined 2 layers with chocolate between them.

Crispy Chocolate

It's was covered with bitter chocolate and some chocolate crunches were on the top and also white powder sugar was sprinkled .

Strawberry Chocolate

Strawberry chocolate contains strawberry flesh.

Some milk chocolate was also added.

Rich Matcha Chocolate

This is the only cronut which has white chocolate between the layers.

The Matcha (green tea) was sweet not like real matcha despite the website says they used bitter matha chocolate.
It's topped with bitter coffee beans.

Smile White Chocolate

This one has smiley face on the top.

This is what it looks inside.

It has a lot of layers inside same as croissant.

So it's basically donut-shaped croissant which is not baked in the oven but instead it's fried.

3 of us shared 4 cronuts so basically each of us had 1 and third cronuts.
In about 10 minutes, all the 4 cronuts were gone.

All the crumbs were same as the ones come from croissant.

We tried this around 3:00PM and tasted fine, however we imagined it'd taste much better and softer when it's oven fresh.

But at the same time, as Banderole sells cronut coated with chocolate, they needs to be cooled down before applying chocolate over it, so I wonder how we can get "fresh" ones.

Maybe we all and reserve and ask not to put chocolate coating? --- If they could, it's awesome though.

B's Cafe Toyocho (owend by Banderole) / B's Cafe 東陽町店 (バンデロール系列)

Summit Store, Tokyo East 21

6-3-1 Toyo, Koto-ku, Tokyo

東京都江東区東陽6-3-1

東京イースト21サミットストア内

Open: 10:00AM - 9:00PM