Vegan doughnut shop Donut Farm arrives in LA


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Despite being a health nut who seldom eats added sugar — save for the occasional piece of 95 percent dark chocolate — visiting Donut Farm, a new all vegan doughnut shop, was a must. Since its opening on Feb. 13, Donut Farm has been booming with business. Located in the trendy hub of Silverlake, where hipsters and vegans alike frequently flock to the innovative shops throughout the neighborhood, the shop has so far been well-received.

Josh Levine founded Donut Farm in 2007. With the help of the community eager for a vegan doughnut company, Donut Farm was eventually born. Based out of Northern California, the other three Donut Farm shops are located in San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley.

Donut Farm is the first vegan doughnut shop in Los Angeles. The bakers produce high quality doughnuts from scratch, using ingredients that are free of chemical stabilizers and dyes. The head baker, known mononymously as Mack, described the delectability of the doughnuts, which are made of premium ingredients such as organic cane sugar, organic soy flour, organic flax seed and, for certain doughnuts, organic coconut milk.

“We’re not going to claim that it’s health food, since it’s still a fried doughnut and still sugar, but it is the lesser of two evils, and vegan!” Mack said.

Indeed, the vegan doughnuts are the lesser of two evils, since no animals were exploited in the process, and most of the ingredients leave small carbon footprints. These cruelty-free and environmentally friendly doughnuts are incredibly satisfying for vegans and non-vegans alike. Light and airy in texture, it is easy to quickly consume these delicious doughnuts.

“They’re really light, I can have three of them, and ask myself, can I have another one?” Mack said.

After praising the doughnuts, Mack hand-picked six doughnuts to sample: matcha green tea, blueberry (made with fresh organic blueberries), roasted red chili, salted caramel, classic glaze and lavender earl grey. All of the doughnuts were equally delicious, with distinctive tastes. Each bite burst with a multitude of flavors — predominantly sweet, of course. For someone easily overwhelmed by ample doses of sugar, the doughnuts resulted in no negative aftermath, and instead resulted in pure bliss.

In addition to their variety of doughnuts, Donut Farm also sells hibiscus teas, juices, cold brew coffee and merchandise. Their in-store merchandise consists of mugs, t-shirts and zip hoodies that all have the stylish Donut Farm logo on them. They also give away complimentary stickers and pins (great for decking out laptops and backpacks!).

If they couldn’t be any more innovative, Donut Farm is in the process of developing their own ingredients.

“We are working on cultivating our own yeast right now, and it’s going to take a few more days for us to be able to actually use it. So until then, we are still using commercial yeast. After that, we are going to be totally self-sufficient,” Mack said.

As far as future plans, Mack and Josh Levine are constantly brainstorming new flavors. They have 30 so far and are continuing their flavor expansion.