Comments on: We’re Mad About Our Sweet Sixteen Doughnuts

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 12:01:39 +0000

We Been Buying the Sweet Sixteen donuts(Hostess) and they have been Nasty and Melted the Powdered and Choc. and My Kids eat them but the last 3times they have not eat them bc of this and it makes me ever upset bc Sweet Sixteen use to be my favorite while i was pregnant 2yrs ago I could eat a whole bag by myself but i can’t even eat 1 right now:( Im upset and something needs to happen….

By: Tina

Tina — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:03:30 +0000

I grew up in Florida and now live in Maine. I grew up with Sweet Sixteen donuts and love them. Everytime I go back home to visit, my family buys a couple of bags of them. On my recent trip last week, we got bags of the donuts but I noticed they weren’y Merita anymore. The hostess brand of the sweet sixteen taste great to me, but here in Maine the hostess brand is way different and they don’t sell the Sweet Sixteen’s here. I want to buy them online but don’t know how?

By: Renee

Renee — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 00:28:15 +0000

I am little behind the rest of you, but just as annoyed. I recongized the Sweet Sixteen logo, but couldnt fathom why it was on a Hostess brand bag…well until now. They just do not taste the same, and I will now be on the look out for the BlueBird brand here in Charleston,SC also.

By: erin

erin — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 20:03:08 +0000

I knew right away that something had changed – I was a little suspicious of the package which looked different but I had not realized that original Sweet 16s were a Merita brand. My daughter said she thought I was crazy when I threw my partially eaten bite of the donut away and sat down at the computer to do some research. This is a REAL shame. I am so disappointed. I was hoping that these were just a competitor’s (like Entenmann’s)lame attempt to copy a legend. These new imitations are awful. Seconding Bunny’s blech. So glad there is still hope in the BlueBird version. Thanks Erik! We will be on a quest to find them.

By: judy

judy — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:32:53 +0000

oh, here in chattanooga, too. bad. they are stale all the time. i love merita everything. why oh why merita???

By: jennifer

jennifer — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:52:12 +0000

when i was a kid in florida i remember getting the sweet sixteen donuts all the time!! they were by far my favorite! but since i moved to montana back in 1998, i have had to eat other brands of donuts including in the last few years, the hostess brand of donuts. i DO NOT like the taste of these donuts AT ALL, and was longing to find out if you could get the sweet 16 donuts anywhere around here..apparently not. i am sorely disappointed in the taste and quality of the hostess brand donuts and wish that the merita sweet 16 donuts would come back again…you can never correct a PERFECT thing and the meritas were the perfect thing!

PLEASE COME BACK AND COME TO MONTANA!!!!

By: nancy

nancy — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:55:22 +0000

I can’t believe that all of you remember Sweet Sixteen. I live in South Jersey now and no one seems to know what I’m talking about but I grew up on Long Island, NY.

At my house we had 2 treats a week a box of Scooter Pies and a sack of Sweet Sixteens. I was so intrigued at the packaging when I was a little girl I wanted to dance to those records and wear capri pants like the Barbiesque girl on the bag and just when I thought that was the greatest thing about them I looked in that cellophane window and saw those delicious donuts.

The powdered sugar would stick to the roof of your mouth and your lips would look like white lipstick. What a great memory!

By: Loving Walgreens in Orlando Florida USA | janetong.com - Sharing with you my Travelling Experiences, World Souvenirs such as Fridge Magnets, Dolls & many others.....& my Greatest Love of All.....Delicious Yummy Food!! Enjoy!

Wed, 20 May 2009 09:02:23 +0000

[...] And of course I start counting the Donuts first upon opening the Pack & YES, there’re 16 of them that’s why it’s called Sweet Sixteen!! [...]

By: Bunny Misses Her Sweet Sixteen |

Bunny Misses Her Sweet Sixteen | — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:47:12 +0000

[...] as I can remember. How excited my sister and I would be when my parents would bring home a bag of Merita Sweet Sixteens! We didn’t have a lot in those days, and those soft, fluffy, light little donuts were such a [...]

By: Bunny

Bunny — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:48:39 +0000

I’m so disappointed that the best powdered sugar donut on the face of the earth is no longer available. I’m in my 40′s and have enjoyed these delicious little donuts as far back as I can remember. How excited my sister and I would be when my parents would bring home a bag of Sweet Sixteens! We didn’t have a lot in those days, and those soft, fluffy, light little donuts were such a special treat!

With the ever-changing world we live in, a little continuity is nice — something you can count on from generation to generation. I feel like another little connection to childhood and family (and continuity of *my* universe) has been erased.

:::sigh::: I know it’s just a donut, but, hey…I’m still mourning the loss of my beloved Chef Boyardee Sausage Pizza Kit, too (remember when the cheese pizza kit was in a yellow box; the pepperoni kit was in a green box; and the super delicious sausage kit was in a red box?).

The first time I bought the Hostess SS donuts was about two months ago. I couldn’t find the familiar Merita packaging and happened to notice the new Hostess pkg. My heart sank right then and there, but I thought maybe it was the same product with only a new brand name. Okay, so maybe the first bag wasn’t fresh or something…so I tried a second bag recently. Blech. Booooooohissssssss!

You know, if Hostess is going to use the SS name, they have an obligation to produce a product worthy thereof — it’s trickery to use the name, but not the recipe/process that made Merita Sweet Sixteen so beloved for all these years! Their version of Sweet Sixteen is far inferior. Has that “off” taste that all the other packaged donuts (EXCEPT for Merita Sweet Sixteen) have always had. Heavier, cakier, with a flavor that screams, “I’m a packaged cake product…what did you expect?”

Hey, Erik, thanks for the tip about the Bluebird brand — I’ve seen it here in NC but haven’t ever tried it. Thanks to you, I will, though!

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:12:00 +0000

Look at the package again. Now Sweet “Sixteen” only has 15 donuts in it. Also, with the serving size of 3 and “about 6″ servings per bag, there should be 18 donuts per bag. Hostess needs to decide what it is really selling! Be truthful. . . I don’t like the deception.

By: Merita

Merita — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:45:22 +0000

OMG this is so cool i never knew there was a brand with my name on it D but now it’s gone…great.

By: Merita

Merita — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:41:21 +0000

OMG i didn’t know there was a brand nammed Merita, that’s soo cool! Obviously (if u looked at the name box thing) my name is Merita D i wanna buy these donuts now…whereever they sell them lol

By: Erik

Erik — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:31:25 +0000

While it’s somewhat comforting to see I wasn’t alone in my dismay and disappointment, it was troubling to find the confirmation here that my Merita Sweet Sixteen have passed on.

However …

Just over the past few weeks the local Publix has begun to stock not only the Hostess but also “Blue Bird Bakeries Powdered donuts”. It’s a 10 oz. bag, red and blue, same size as the Merita and the donuts … ARE the MERITAS!!!

They’re GREAT!

We’re in Fort Myers and Publix so far is the only place I’ve found ‘em. The convenience stores and Sweetbay have all switched to Hostess. But you can pick-up two bags of the Blue Bird/Merita-esque for $3.00!

Hopefully that price isn’t indicative of a push to clear out stock. The web-address on the bag is http://www.bluebirdcake.com, which simply redirects to Flowers Food, but their brand page shows “Blue Bird” with a “coming soon” site.

Find ‘em, they’re great!

By: Hawes Spencer

Hawes Spencer — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 05:06:56 +0000

When I was in college in Texas in 1986, I recall a female friend supplied some Sweet Sixteen donuts for a party, and she remarked that one of the coolest things about them was that packaging which had these cool 1960s-era images of sock-hop kids listening to records and such. Well, to our horror, just a year or two later, the folks at Merita decided to update the package. Did they choose New Wave people, as might have been appropriate for the mid-1980s? No, they suddenly evicted the clip art of Eisenhower/Kennedy era fun-lovers for a bunch of cheesed-up groovers from the Carter administration. Giant mop heads and bell-bottoms replaced page-boy hairdos and neat pants and skirts. I had been under the mistaken impression that Merita really liked the Eisenhower/Kennedy era fashions. Now, I realized, the company marketing department simply was run by folks who were 20 years behind the times. It was so disheartening that I just can’t weep now about anything that followed– including the switch to no images.