August 01, 2020

Deviant Donuts Review

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This past weekend, we took a small trip to Mystic, CT, about an hour and a half from our home. We have been to Mystic a few times before and always enjoy ourselves. This visit, we stayed in a nice hotel out of the more crowded touristy areas, which was quiet and relaxing. Over the few days we were there, we found a fantastic little cafe, the Bleu Squid, with tons of gluten-free options, visited Abbott's Lobster on the water for a seaside lunch, drove over the iconic downtown drawbridge that brought us to the famous Mystic Pizza, browsed the charming shops and artist tents at the Old Mystic Village, met some adorable animals at the Mystic Aquarium, had a classic surf and turf dinner at the Steak Loft and finally ended our trip by scoring some highly coveted Deviant Donuts.

Deviant Donuts is a small pop-up shop that is open Friday thru Sunday and is run out of the Vault Coffee Roasters in Old Mystic Village. Although they are not a huge operation, they are big on flavor and trends. They are not a dedicated gluten-free facility, so they list gluten-sensitive on their menu instead. This lets customers know that although the dough itself is made without any wheat or glutenous products, it is made in a bakery that has wheat flours in it. They are super cautious about cross contamination and take every effort to make sure their gluten-sensitive flavors are as safe as they can be. I like how transparent they are about their practices and decided it was worth the small risk for me to dive in and try some.

Let me tell you, these beauties sell out fast! They open the doors at 8am and every day, there is already a line wrapping around the village before the sign is even turned. They have a reputation for selling out by noon, sometimes earlier. You can pre-order starting on Tuesday of that week, however, I did not know of this option before it was too late, so we decided to get up extra early and make sure we were first in line. 6am on Sunday morning rolled around and we were indeed the first!

By the time they opened, the line was crazy long and we were glad we got there when we did. This weeks theme was Harry Potter. YUP! You heard that right Harry freaking Potter. We ended up with 2 dozen. All of the favorites were accounted for; butter beer, chocolate frog, acceptance letter, quidditch and of course the houses Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. The gluten-sensitive flavors happened to be the houses of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. I was slightly disappointed that neither was chocolate, however, they both ended up being delicious!

Hufflepuff was a lemon poppy seed donut with a lemon glaze and yellow butter cream. Ravenclaw was a blueberry donut with a blueberry lavender glaze. Floral flavors are not my cup of tea, so I was most looking forward to the lemon poppy seed. However, after trying them, I have to say, the blueberry was surprisingly my favorite! Both had the same muffin-like texture. Having been made from rice flour, tapioca and sorghum, and then baked, I was not surprised by this at all. Honestly, I loved the texture. I have never really been a big fried donut fan, so a baked muffin-like donut? That's my jam.

Would I make the trip and stand in line for 2 hours again just for donuts? I most absolutely would. I mean, not in the near future, but 2 or 3 times a year, yes. A little pricey, our 2 dozen set us back almost $100, but for a semi-annual treat? Totally worth it.

Visit their website here for weekly menus and info.