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Nothing, But Sugar's name doesn’t really check out, but do their desserts pass the test?
As a team of dedicated wordsmiths and vocabu-liers, we here at SoraNews24 believe that the proper use of language is an important responsibility. So ordinarily we might cluck our tongues, gnash our teeth, and shoryuken the ceiling at the name of Nothing, But Sugar, a shop we visited in the town of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. Not only does that comma have no business being there, Nothing, But Sugar actually has more than just sugar on offer.
However, we’re not only sticklers when it comes to language, but also sweets fans with a ravenous hunger for desserts, and so we’ll give Nothing, But Sugar a pass on its linguistic oddities, since its store is filled with cinnamon rolls.
A little geographic background: Yokosuka was one of east Japan’s first major ports, and is also the site of a large U.S. Navy base. That makes the town a bit of a cultural melting pot, especially on Dobuitadori, or Dobuita Street, which is lined with shops selling Americana and vintage U.S. fashions, as well as Yokosuka’s representative apparel, the sukajan (a style of embroidered silk baseball/bomber jacket), as well as hamburger joints and bars with a classic American aesthetic. Because of that, Dobuita is sometimes called “Japan’s closest street to America,” and as of 2021, it’s also home to Nothing But Sugar, a shop specializing in American sweets.
Originally, Nothing But Sugar sold muffins, pudding, and cinnamon rolls. These days, though, they’re strictly a cinnamon roll specialty shop, though they plan on brining the pudding back soon, which is perhaps why they haven’t just changed their name to Nothing But Cinnamon Rolls. With cinnamon rolls being much harder to find in Japan than pudding, though, we weren’t complaining about the current focused specialization, especially since there were a few different cinnamon roll variations in the display case when we walked in.
Rather than waste any time pretending we were going to limit ourselves to just one, we quickly settled on a three-pack of regular-size cinnamon rolls for 2,660 yen (US$17/50). We should note that Nothing But Sugar seems to be using the American standard of what “regular-size” is, which makes them quite big for desserts in Japan (again, this is not a complaint). They also have small-size muffins for 480 yen, in case your appetite isn’t quite as big as ours.
Back at the SoraNews24 taste-testing center, we could have just started scarfing down, but we managed to control those urges just long enough to pop the cinnamon roll in the microwave for a minute, and as mouthwatering as it looked before being warmed up…
…it looked 10 times more so afterwards!
As enticing as this melty cascade of cream cheese frosting was to look at, though, we couldn’t help but notice our cinnamon roll didn’t have much of a cinnamon-y aroma, either before or after its stint in the microwave. However, when we sliced off a piece to get some cross-section photos and keep our fingers from getting covered in frosting, it was like we’d cracked open a safe filled with olfactory treasures, as amazing cinnamon smells swiftly emanated from the roll’s interior layers.
Taking a bite, we found the texture pretty much perfect, softer and fluffier than a sice of bread or muffin, yet firmer and more satisfying than flimsy sponge cake. The flavor was excellent as well, unabashedly sweet, with the whole grain flour and cane sugar making the dough delicious and the generous sprinkling of cinnamon sugar on top only adding to the appeal.
We’d also picked out a blueberry cinnamon roll, which feels especially unique in Japan, where blueberries don’t pop up as often in cereals, pastries, and the like as they do in the U.S.
Finally, our third selection was a walnut cinnamon roll.
Not only are there walnuts mixed in with the frosting, there are chunks of them inside the cinnamon roll too, giving it some extra crunchy complexity as you chew.
So in the end, Nothing, But Sugar went three for three in our taste test, so they can call themselves whatever they like, and we’ll still love them.
Shop information
Nothing, But Sugar / ナッシングバットシュガー
Address: Kanagawa-ken, Yokosuka-shi, Honcho 2-1
神奈川県横須賀市本町2丁目1
Open 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
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