Eats

Feeling the Sugar Rush: My Top 5 Sweet Treats of 2025

I’ve always had a raging sweet tooth. Cookies, chocolate, candies, cakes…. if it has sugar, I’m in. In 2025 I had my fair share of deserts. From mango sticky rice in Thailand to key lime pie in Key West, choosing the best has been no easy task. But I’ve perused my archives and narrowed it down to five that I still think about.

Let’s dive into my top 5 sweet treats of 2025!

(Get the scoop on what they were in 2024 HERE)

5. Cinnamon Bun Pancakes from Hawaiian Merengue Café in Yokohama, Japan

Some say pancakes are breakfast, but I’d argue that many stacks are in fact dessert. One such stack are the cinnamon bun souffle pancakes from Hawaiian Merengue Café in Yokohama, Japan. This stack featured perfectly fluffy, not too eggy-tasting, pancakes that were smothered in a decadent cinnamon cream cheese sauce. What was utterly wowing was the fact that the pancakes had a cinnamon sugar center that tasted like the ooey gooey center of a cinnamon bun– the “tenderloin”, as my dad would say.

The amazing texture, divine flavor, and “wow… I will likely never have anything like this again” factors are what earns these the #5 spot on my top sweet treats of 2025 list.

(What are souffle pancakes? Read my deep dive HERE!)

4. Classic Cinnamon Bun from Red Gate Bakery in NYC

New York City underwent a cinnamon roll renaissance in 2025. Suddenly, dozens of bakeries started pumping out decadent, gooey, cinnamon buns and a handful of niche, cinnamon-bun only shops opened.

I love cinnamon buns, and I gladly hopped onto the trend. I tried a few spots, but the one that reigned supreme was the classic from Red Gate Bakery. The outside of the bun had a slight crispiness, and the inside was mega ooey gooey with a hefty coating of cinnamon and sugar on each layer. The dough itself had a bold, yeasty flavor and soft, yet sturdy mouthfeel. And the brown butter cream cheese icing with a drizzle of “cinnygoo” took it all over the edge.

3. Melon Pan filled with ice cream in Hakodate, Japan

Melon pan is a delectable Japanese street sweet treat that consists of a fluffy, soft, sweet roll topped with a layer of crunchy cookie-like dough. Despite the name, melon pan has no melon flavor. Rather, it gets the name due to the shape that resembles a melon. The seemingly simple treat is labor intensive to make. A dough of two types of flour, sugar, yeast, eggs, and milk is meticulously kneaded then stuffed with butter before being topped with a biscuit dough.

We snagged a melon bun with ice cream in Hakodate, and I’m still dreaming about it. The bun itself was just sweet enough with a soft, brioche like interior and perfectly crunchy top. Fresh ice cream made with Hokkaido diary (which is the best of the best… read my deep dive HERE) was plopped in the middle. The combination of crunchy, creamy, and soft with the contrast of warm to cold made for one heck of a treat.

2. Filled Croissant from L’Appartement 4F, NYC

L’Apparement 4f is a Parisian-style bakery that brings a taste of France to the Big Apple. You can snag fresh baguettes and delectable kouign amanns, but their filled croissants are what totally rocked my world. We popped in when my cousins were visiting and tried the pistachio rose croissant. It was so gosh darn good that we went back the next day.

The croissants themselves are beautifully buttery with just enough flake, and the fillings are simply extraordinary. In the pistachio rose, the pistachio flavor is pure and bold with just a pop of rose that adds floral notes without that “shampoo” taste. I also tried the raspberry which had the ideal balance of sweet and tart to compliment the buttery croissant. I’m hard pressed to think of a better filled croissant I’ve had, and it’ll be one of my first stops back in NYC when I return in march.

1. Mocha Pie from Four Stories, Kathmandu, Nepal

When I opine over the best desserts I’ve ever had, the mocha pie from Four Stories in Kathmandu is a contender. Four Stories is a hip three story restaurant in Thamel that’s light, airy, and chic with dim lighting and cushions on the ground for seating. The décor and ambience draw in the linen-laden, tattoo covered young traveler who is on a travel experience to find herself. Not authentically Nepalese, but cool nevertheless.

They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but the star of the show are the pies. The mocha has a fudgy, just-out-of-the-oven underbaked brownie texture with an intense mocha flavor that’s decadent, but not too sweet. The coconut is like a giant macaroon and super soft vanilla cake had a baby. After 6pm, all the pie slices at Four Stories are 50% off. We spent about a week in Kathmandu, and nearly every night we’d stop by to share slice along with a couple lemon, ginger, honey teas as we played the New York Times app games.

The combination of amazing flavor, top-tier mouthfeel, frugality, and nostalgia make this my top sweet treat of 2025.