Last week, Spoon JMU had the sincere pleasure of getting a private sit-down with John Blackburn of Pure Eats in Harrisonburg. First off, this guy is one of the nicest dudes I’ve ever met. Secondly, he is a man on a mission to bring local ingredients and flair to Harrisonburg. And for that, I am thankful.
We sampled a wide variety of yummy things, but for me, the best part was trying their four donut flavors that they had offered that day. Pure Eats serves four donuts every day, but they’re different all of the time. Points for variety and creativity.
I was no stranger to Pure Eats’ donuts. Once, after yoga at The Center in the Ice House, I passed by Pure Eats and saw their sign was knocked over. I just picked it back up and carried on my way. When I made it to the parking lot across the street, a man ran out with a bag of donuts and thanked me for picking up the sign.
No, I never got that guy’s number but I did fall in love with Pure Eats that day. So, without further adieu, here’s what the Spoon JMU team thought about each Pure Eats donut we sampled.
Maple Bacon
Maple Bacon donuts are trendy AF. I first fell in love with them last summer when I visited Duck Donuts. I had high expectations for Pure Eats given my amazing experience with them in the past. As a team, we were not disappointed.
It first needs to be noted that each donut was so, so fresh given that they only make small batches every day. The saltiness of the bacon was played off perfectly by their maple icing. It was insanely good (BTW—make your own maple bacon chocolate roses at home).
Cinnamon Sugar
All we could keep saying was, “Oh my god. Oh my god.” This donut was not playing around. The Cinnamon Sugar is one of their classic donuts that is served pretty regularly. It’s like fall in your mouth, the type of donut you want pretty much every morning on repeat. Huge fan. HUGE fan. Also, cinnamon is secretly really good for you.
Oats McGoats
The Oats McGoats donut was described to us as having a beer glaze from local brewery Three Notch’d. The Oats McGoats beer is an Oatmeal Stout, to kind give you more of an idea of what was going on here. Though we didn’t get a huge amount of beer flavor in the donut, we agreed that it was still super tasty.
Strawberry Sprinkle
Arguably the cutest donut out of all of them, the Strawberry Sprinkle was also a favorite among a couple of the Spoon JMU gals. You are immediately hit with the scent of fresh strawberries, which was something that I was totally down with.
A lot of times with donuts (from Dunkin’, for example) they say it’s strawberry but you can taste how artificial it is. This was not the case for the Strawberry Sprinkle donut. It was authentic, yummy, and kind of perfect.
Donuts are essentially a separate food group. That’s why it’s so important to broaden your horizon and check out what else the world has to offer beyond chains like Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ Donuts.
Make sure to check out Pure Eats on Instagram (@pureeatsyum) on the daily for their selection of donuts being offered.