Café Dulce—the hip café in the USC Village that always has a line out the door. From the frothy lattes to the earthy matcha drinks, everyone has a favorite. If you walk into the café, your eyes are instantly drawn to the massive glass display containing mouth-watering confections. Loaded donuts, French toast-like “brick toast,” and round and colorful buns called rotis.
You might have eaten one of these sweet, fluffy buns with unique fillings, but do you know what they really are or where they originate from? Well, a roti is actually a type of sweet bun have different variations throughout the world, like the Mexican concha. Rotis originate from Malaysia and are actually referred to as Mexican coffee buns. They are made from a sweet dough with a thin layer of cookie dough, filled with a creamy filling or butter. We tasted all the rotis and made a guide for you to make your sweet decision making easy!
7. Green Tea
This was almost completely dry on the inside which wasn’t great. It mainly tasted like a bread bun with a slight aftertaste of green tea, and the roti itself was not very light in texture. Again, there was no filling. If you are looking for your green tea fix, we suggest sticking to Dulce’s matcha lattes.
6. Red Bean
Now this may be biased, but we are ranking this low due to the texture of the beans within the roti. The taste was interesting—green tea cookie crust with red bean filling—and it could have been more appealing if it had been a smooth and fluffy filling rather than a rough mash with almost whole beans. We liked the idea of it but less the execution.
5. Snow Cap
If a sugar cookie had a baby with a milk bun, its child would be this snow cap roti. The cookie crust was the best part of the bun, tasting pretty much exactly like a sugar cookie. There was also a bit more filling in this roti, which tasted a bit like cream cheese, but we want more! Overall, it was a nice and light roti.
4. Mocha
This roti tasted very similar to the original roti, but it had a bit more filling. The mocha filling itself was still lacking, but it had a nice coffee flavor. Again, we believe the roti should be stuffed with filling, and this was not.
3. Blueberry
Now this roti could’ve gotten a higher ranking if the filling wasn’t quite so reminiscent of a cheap jelly donut. The flavor of the cookie and the dough itself had great blueberry flavor that paired wonderfully with Dulce’s iced matcha. Though the filling was a bit too artificial, since there was so much of it, it kept the roti very moist, which was great. If you’re a fan of jelly donuts, definitely get this roti.
2. Original
The flavors of this roti was quite delectable. The coffee cookie was absolutely delightful! The reason this roti was not number one was the lack of filling. It was almost completely dry on the inside which was a bit disappointing. We would love to try it once again when the filling is actually there.
1. Pumpkin Spice (seasonal)
Hands. Down. The. Best. We had planned to only rank the classic Dulce flavors, but after a glowing review from the barista, we were convinced to try the pumpkin spice roti. This roti was definitely the best. It had great texture, a nice ratio of filling to dough, and the cookie on top was the perfect way to bring it all together. This was like biting into fall and we truly can’t say enough good things.
You are probably craving a sweet treat right about now (we don’t blame you). So, go try these rotis, and you can judge for yourself which you think is the best. We can confidently say that you will not be sorry if you get the pumpkin spice flavor, but you will be if you do not try one before they are gone!