Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken hadn’t even opened officially when they came out with doughnuts about President Barack Obama for his second inauguration.
Dubbed the “Obama Then” and the “Obama Now,” the doughnuts reflected the president’s changing tastes since his first inauguration. The then was a chocolate-glazed doughnut drizzled with caramel sauce and sprinkled with Maldon smoked sea salt, while the now was a honey-glazed, oatmeal raisin doughnut topped with crumbled granola.
Since Astro didn’t open their first location in Washington, D.C. until April 2013, the Obama doughnuts were served out of a coffee shop with which Astro partnered in January 2013.
And the politics-inspired food did well, because now – two locations and a food truck later – Astro decided to bring out two more themed doughnuts for the election: the Hillary and the Donald.
“We were playing off the Obama doughnut,” said co-founder Elliot Spaisman. “We didn’t want to make light of the election, but we wanted to lighten the mood up.”
Both doughnuts reflect the tastes of the candidates. The Hillary is a spicy hot chocolate flavor, a chocolate cake doughnut with chocolate Chipotle glaze and a “D” piped on top. It was created based on Hillary Clinton’s reported love for chocolate and the fact that she eats a hot pepper every day. The Donald is a vanilla cherry coke flavor, a pillow yeast doughnut filled with cherry compote and Cherry Vanilla Coke glaze, with an “R” piped on top. Those flavors were picked based on Donald Trump’s reported love of both diet coke and cherry vanilla ice cream.
“I think it hits both of them in a good way on what they enjoy,” Spaisman said.
The doughnuts are only being sold the week before the election and can be bought through Election Day on Nov. 8. Spaisman declined to comment on who he plans to vote for and said both doughnuts have been selling about equally so far.
“It helps that we’re located a few blocks from the White House,” Spaisman said, adding that he thinks the treats are “both really good.”