Two hours. That's the reported length of the line to get blueberry doughnuts at M&M in Anaheim, if the shrieking horde of hipsters on Yelp is to believed. Two hours stood in a dreary parking lot in a section of Anaheim that's desperately trying to slough off its run-down past, watching men smoke on the patio.
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Fortunately, hipsters hate getting wet (rain soaks through Chucks like
you can't believe and rinses moustache pomade out in no time at all), so
a drizzly Tuesday morning meant there was no barrier for the hapless
volunteer who went to buy doughnuts. No line at all–just doughnuts,
which cost nearly $9 a dozen, and a giant sign in the window that says
that blueberry doughnuts will not be sold in quantities greater than two
dozen.
The screaming Yelpers have waxed lyrical about these
particular doughnuts, but they're certainly not the only blueberry
doughnuts in the county; the way they go on about it, you'd think these
were exclusive products. They're not–many doughnut shops have them,
including Mag's Donuts in Irvine.
The doughnuts are not exactly the apotheosis of round, sweet breakfast cake. Judged solely on taste, they're not particularly compelling at all. The
blueberry flavor, as our own Shuji admits in his article declaring them number 57 in our list of 100 tastes of Orange County, is patently fake. The
blueberries inside are clearly not fresh blueberries, and the flavor is
just barely this side of chemical.
The thing everyone loves about M&M blueberry doughnuts is the
crunchy outside–just enough to be meaningful, but not enough to be
potentially damaging to the teeth. The crunch was, as promised,
great–but it was followed up by a mouthful of rubbery cake that bounced
back unappealingly. Still, that crunch!
Mag's blueberry doughnuts lacked the crunch, but the cake was like any
other good cake doughnut, not elastic or rubbery at all. The taste was
nearly identical to M&M's, which lends credence to Shuji's assertion
that all doughnut shops get their mixes from the Cambodian Donut
Mafia. It's a hard choice, but yes, M&M's blueberry doughnuts are
better.
Honestly, though–even though I'm handing the victory to M&M
here–Mag's is a better choice. They've got a far, far wider selection
than M&M, nicer service, and most importantly, the biggest line is
on Saturday mornings and is rarely more than half a dozen Irvine weekend
warrior dads deep.
Regardless of the outcome, the M&M blueberry doughnuts are most certainly
not worth two hours' wait, and I'd still rather have a blueberry fritter from
Tim Horton's in downtown Canada than either Mag's or M&M's blueberry doughnut.
M&M Donuts, 1614 W. Katella Ave., Anaheim; Mag's Donuts, 18066 Culver Dr., Irvine. Additional locations at 1280 Bison Ave. #B1, Newport Beach, and at 2947 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa.
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