Dunkin’ has recently released its first ever spicy donut, in season with the Halloween spirit. Dunkin’ describes this ghost pepper donut as a “deliciously daring donut that delivers heat with every bite.”
Dunkin’ first released this donut on Oct. 15 along with a few other seasonal items including apple cider donuts, a halloween spider donut and pumpkin spice flavoring.
As someone who really does enjoy spicy foods, I was excited to try this donut. This is like nothing I have ever heard of before. I have never really heard of spicy desserts before except for the world’s hottest chocolate bar. Since this donut is advertised with the ghost pepper, I was expecting it to be extremely spicy.
A ghost pepper is a hybrid pepper from northeast India. On the Scoville heat scale a ghost pepper is around 1,041,427 heat units compared to a jalapeno pepper at around 8,000 heat units. A ghost pepper is one of the hottest peppers.
My first impression when seeing this donut was that it looked enjoyable. I definitely appreciate both donuts and spicy foods, so I had high hopes. It smelled just like a regular donut, sweet and there were no signs of any spice. Normally with extremely spicy foods you can tell it is going to be hot just by smelling it.
I took my first bite and at first tasted the strawberry frosting on top then after a few seconds I tasted pepper. To me there was no heat kicking in like as advertised. It was not spicy; it just tasted gross. It was strawberry and pepper mixed together, but not exactly a spicy donut. For a ghost pepper donut I was expecting myself to be needing to drink milk and for it to be burning my mouth.
But unfortunately, it was not what I expected.
I was not the only one to try Dunkin’s new adventure. I had two others try this spicy donut as well.
First to try was Suffolk University student James Fisher. Fisher is a junior majoring in finance with a concentration in financial planning and wealth management. Fisher enjoys Mexican food and some spicy foods as well.
Upon first look at the donut, Fisher didn’t think the donut was going to be spicy. Fisher took his first bite and just by looking at his face he had the same reaction as me.
“This is not the feeling I want when eating a donut,” Fisher said.
Fisher was not satisfied by this donut, he did not even have high expectations when going into it.
“If I wanted to have this feeling, I would not eat a donut, I would go buy chips and salsa,” he said.
As well as myself and James, I was able to get one more friend to experience this donut.
Hanna Marie is a freshman at Johnson and Wales University studying hospitality. Marie is not a fan of extremely spicy foods.
“I am nervous that it is going to be really spicy and I won’t be able to handle it,” Marie said before taking a bite of the donut.
As Marie took her first bites, she had the same reaction that we all did before her. Marie also thought that the donut was gross and only a little bit spicy.
I was very disappointed with Dunkin’s new ghost pepper donut. This could have been made in a much better way. To me this is not something I will ever be eating again, it just tasted plain gross.
Strawberry and pepper together in a sweet food is not appealing. I think if this donut was actually spicy it would be a fun food to try with friends.
However, if you are curious about this donut, give it a try! Dunkin’ will be having this donut and the other fall specials until supplies last.
Follow Caitlin on Twitter @caitlin_devlin4.
Kyle arroyo • Nov 17, 2020 at 9:07 am
If the ghost pepper donut actually have a kick to it, it’ll be fun to try. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. When I first get this type of donut, I was afraid it’s going to be really spicy when I think about it. But when I take a bite, it doesn’t have that much a kick of spiciness. It’s also has a bland combination of a plant like and sweet taste, which is a bad idea. The fact that this is thier only spicy donut so far. I wish they do this better than this. Thus the ghost pepper donut, is forgettable when people realize it’s isn’t spicy. For a fanboy of spicy foods, I’m extremely dissatisfied and disappointed.
Sarah • Oct 31, 2020 at 1:45 pm
The icing has cyanne pepper and ghost pepper mixed into it, iv had I don’t even know how many of these doughnuts since it came out at the beginning of the month it definitely IS SPICY, but it’s just like a little kick it’s not gonna be spicy enough to give you a heart attack.
Jay Gleaton • Oct 31, 2020 at 12:33 am
I’d love to make you a real spicy donut. I make a strawberry Manzano chili pepper jelly with the powerful pepper company. Imagine that in a donut. I could always dust it with some ghost chili powder if the jelly wasn’t hot enough for you.
DENEEN • Oct 29, 2020 at 11:15 am
I loved the ghost pepper donut and so do others I know. I don’t like donut sandwiches and things like that but this is great. I have had it 3 times within the last 2 weeks, I would never eat 3 donuts in 2 weeks.