TAMPA, Fla. — The trending mochi donuts made their way to the Tampa Bay area, and it’s a dessert you must try.
Mochinut is a popular business that sells mochi donuts with many locations across the country and overseas. Now, it's opening its first Florida location in Temple Terrace at 11401 N 56th St.
You’re probably wondering, “What are mochi donuts?”
According to their website, “a mochi donut is a donut that originated from Hawaii which is a combination of American doughnuts and Japanese mochi. Mochinut is gaining popularity owing to its unique shape and wonderful texture; light crispy coating with a soft chewy inside.”
Mochinut is now open in Tampa
From the second you walk in, the unique smell of the donut is what reels you in.
“You first walk in, you're gonna look at all the different flavors and we're going to explain to you how they taste and, like, what exactly you want,” Mochinut employee Lewis Li said. “So much, you know, it's kind of like a different take on your regular doughnut. It's a more, like, a mochi, like fluffy doughnut kind of type.”
Sammie Richards, also an employee at Mochinut, describes the donut as just like a regular doughnut, but way softer with the Mochinut dough, which makes it very chewy. The flavors of the mochi donuts will change every three days. Some of the flavors you can look out for are: cookies and cream, caramel churro, strawberry funnel, Biscoff, choco churro, and blueberry.
But the mochi donuts are not the only item that has people waiting in a line that goes out the door. The Korean rice flour hotdogs are another big hit.
“In addition to that, we also have Korean corndogs, which is also a popular item,” Li said. “It's just gonna be either cheese or hotdog or half and a half and we can coat it with 10 flavors.”
The hotdogs are coated in a rice flour batter with many options: hotdog, mozzarella cheese, half hotdog and half mozzarella cheese. Coatings also range from potato, hot Cheetos, crunched ramen noodles, and crunch cereal.
“So everyone loves Korean corndogs, especially the cheese pull,” Richards said. “We as Mochinut expand the idea of corndogs by having different flavors every day.
But food businesses such as Mochinut do more than just introduce new dishes or desserts to the bay area. They open the doors for Asian-American representation and help shape what it truly means to be Asian-American through food.
“I feel like people are so used to, like, normal doughnuts, you know, Dunkin' Donuts and all those other brands. But I feel like Mochinut definitely opens a door for like the Asian community as well,” Richards explained.
Through the help of social media, the popularity of Asian cuisines has continued to grow to leave people curious. Curious to venture out and try the authentic or recreated dishes with traditional flavors. But it also introduces more underrepresented cultures to areas where the community is not as prevalent as it is in bigger metropolitan cities allowing more cultural inclusivity.
“And then, this brings out like, 'Oh, they're not your typical American doughnuts, where it's like glazed like chocolate drizzled with different flavors,'” Li said. “We also try to incorporate different Asian aspects to it. But for people that never tried it, it's a way to express our culture, express like a new type of food. And not only if they do enjoy it, they can venture out and try different Asian foods.”
New flavors every three days
Mochinut expands its flavors with Asian flavors: lychee rose, honeydew, ube churro, black sesame, passion fruit, Hokkaido milk tea, and more. Providing the flavors creates more of an opportunity for those who have never tried Asian flavors or may live in an area where it’s not accessible. It gives exposure to the diversity of cultures and flavors to give a better experience to customers.
"I grew up in a town where not a lot of cultures were being represented, especially Asian. Moving here was really nice. And I think overall, the Asian community is getting really big here,” Richards said.
The Tampa Bay area is continuing to grow and have a cultural transformation with the food scene.
“We have different cultural aspects because it isn't like Asian exclusive, anyone can participate but it's just originated from Asia or any particular country from Asia.”
Mochinut Tampa will soon add boba tea to their menu. Follow their Instagram for updates on their journey.