RIP Hostess Raspberry Filled Powdered Donuts

I wrote an article close to a decade ago, to share my dismay with Hostess for discontinuing their Raspberry Filled Donuts. That article was still getting an unreal amount of traffic and interaction to this very day. In fact, no other article I have written has brought the amount of traffic to 'The Retro Dad' that this one has. It's still a subject that lots of folks are interested in, so I have dusted off the article and updated it for the snack cake loving masses in 2023. Enjoy..

Hostess Raspberry Filled Donuts were originally called 'Hostess O's'. I rememeber when we called them O's, and I believe the name was changed in the late 70s.

I don't eat a lot of donuts now, but..

Over the last year and a half, I've developed a much healthier relationship with food. The other day while shopping with my wife, I did something that puzzled her. She couldn't believe I was perusing the snack cake aisle intently. A few years ago she wouldn't have even blinked, but it actually shocked her I was doing so now. 

I explained that I do this every time I visit the market for one single reason. That is, to search for anything that remotely resembles the now extinct Hostess Raspberry Filled Donuts. I also informed her that the day I come across a reasonable simile, they will be coming home with me, and store bought snack cakes will grace my cupboard shelf for the first time in nearly two years.  

As a result of bankruptcy, Hostess went through a buyout in recent years. Unfortunately, the wonder that was Hostess Raspberry Filled Donuts, became a casualty of this corporate reorganization. They obviously didn't make the cut for the updated product line and it's a shame. Not only were they my favorite Hostess product, loads of snack cake fans feel the same way (just peek at the comment section below this post).

Memories..

I had seen and eaten Raspberry Filled Donuts before at various church functions. My Dad would also occasionally buy them to have on hand at his barber shop to share with his morning customers. I was already hooked, but my love for these these delightful powdered delicacies was solidified at 13 years of age.

Spring 1983..
My friend and I had been enjoying a very successful spring with our lawn mowing and landscaping business, and concluded we had rightly earned a Saturday off. Friday night we stocked up on fishing gear and farmed my friend's yard for night crawlers. We turned in early and set our CASIO wrist watch alarms for 5:00 a.m.

Early the next morning we stopped at the local 7-11 on the way to our top secret fishing hole, to stock up on some food and refreshments for the day. I spotted the Hostess raspberry filled donuts on the shelf and excitedly bought a box for our breakfast. This was the first ever box I had bought with my own money, and I remember feeling quite excited and empowered.

We rode our bikes about five miles to our favorite fishing spot on the river. We made a little campfire, casted our lines into the water, and waited for the fish to start biting. We cracked open the box of donuts and poured ourselves some coffee from our thermoses. I don't know if it was the serene atmosphere coupled with the feeling of independence we had that morning, but those raspberry donuts were about the best thing I had ever tasted.

As for the all day fishing trip, we fished for all of 20 minutes when the clouds rolled over, the temperature dropped twenty degrees, and snow started flying. You see, this story takes place in Northern Colorado, where freak snow storms in June have been known to happen from time to time. We hurriedly packed up all of our gear and quickly hightailed it back to my friends house riding into the wind, dressed for 80 degree weather.

Sometime before 8:00 a.m. we walked through my friend's front door soaking wet, our skin feeling blistered and burned from the wind chill and snow. Walking through the dining room on the way to the kitchen, we came across his parents sitting at the table sipping their morning cup of coffee. My friend's Mom poured us each a cup, and we all polished off the remaining donuts while he and I cursed the crazy Colorado weather. And cursed it we did, as it was 73 degrees by 1:00 that afternoon. Like the locals say in Colorado.. "If you don't like the weather here, just wait ten minutes".

From that point on, I would think of this story every time I ate a Hostess Raspberry Filled Doughnut, and probably shared it with my kids more times than they cared to hear. Dejected as I was back then, I now look back fondly on this childhood memory and can't help but smile every time I do so.

The very last box of Hostess 

Raspberry Donuts I ever bought in 2012.

It's a real punch in the gut when you go to buy a product you love, only to find out after the fact that you will never be able to do so ever again. This happened to me in 2013 when I could no longer find Raspberry Filled Donuts on the shelves. My dismay turned into panic as I searched store after store with no luck. I got online and reached out to Hostess customer service, to see if they could point me to a retailer that carried them. After a couple of days they sent me an email stating that the donuts were discontinued with no plans to bring them back.

Now what?
I so wish I could track down a reasonable simile to the Hostess Raspberry Filled Donut. I could've sworn I saw other brands on the shelves back in the day, but they were nowhere to be found over the years as I searched for them. They have definitely evaded me, and I have even used cross country road trips as opportunities to search for them in other regions. I've hunted for them to no avail, but I've heard things that give me hope.

Several of my readers have told me there is a nice raspberry filled donut that FRANZ makes. It's a brand I've been keeping a sharp eye out for, although I haven't seen them in Florida yet.

More of my wonderful readers have told me about a company named 'Katz' that makes a Raspberry filled jelly donut that is kosher, free of preservatives & chemicals, and still tastes wonderful. While I haven't located them yet, I have found that their raspberry filled donut holes are available on Amazon. I've included the link below in case you want to give them a try.

  

Also, Wal-Mart apparently sells some raspberry donuts under their Great Value brand. Folks have told me they are similar, albeit not quite as good as Hostess was. Sadly, I haven't been able to find any since I started actively looking for them.

I got excited recently, as they showed up on the Wal-Mart app. When I tried to order them however, I was told they were out of stock. I went to the store just in case, but they were nowhere to be found. I see these brands of donuts available on the reseller market, but the prices are ridiculous. I saw boxes on eBay selling for $18.00 last time I entertained going that route. I'm a patient man, so rest assured I will not be doing that. If I do find an affordable way to obtain them online however, I will share the info here.

We could always bother the heck out of Hostess to resurrect them. I contact them a few times a year to bring them back, as well as their Cherry Sweet Rolls, Cinnamon Rolls and Banana Cream Filled Twinkies. You can directly message Hostess Customer Service using the link below..

Contact Form for Hostess Customer Service

Ask them to bring back Raspberry Filled Powdered Donuts!

So that's about it for the state of raspberry powdered donuts in 2023. My search will continue and I will share any news or findings here. In the meantime, feel free to comment below if you've found a suitable replacement for Hostess Raspberry Filled Donuts and where they may be found.