I have a confession to make: I am addicted to all things sweet. I love cookies, cakes and pastries of all kinds. However, now that I am a college student and on a budget, it can sometimes be difficult to satisfy my sweet tooth while still being mindful of my bank account balance. Thanks to Beard Papa’s, I can now indulge my sweet tooth and not spend a fortune on a single pastry. Beard Papa’s is a bakery that specializes in cream puffs. Cream puffs are a pastry close to my heart, or more accurately, my taste buds. Unfortunately, they tend to be a pricier pastry on bakery menus. In 1999, Beard Papa’s opened up their first location in Osaka, Japan. The company’s intention was to make high-quality cream puffs at an affordable price. Today, 14 years later, their mission has remained unchanged. With locations in more than 15 different countries, Beard Papa’s sells quality sweet treats at affordable prices that allow students on a budget to indulge their sweet tooth—$2.15 for all cream puff flavors.

When you enter Beard Papa’s, your senses are automatically overwhelmed by the warm and sugary smell of freshly baked choux pastry, a specific kind of traditional French dough the cream puff shells are made of. The interior of the store is bright and airy and there are long wooden tables where customers can eat their cream puffs in comfort. The free magazines near the tables make it clear that this is the kind of place where you can indulge in a few cream puffs while doing work you brought from home or school. While I was a little disappointed they did not have any of the unique holiday flavors advertised on the website in the New York location, I was impressed by the flavors I did sample. I got three cream puffs: the original vanilla, éclair and dulce de leche.

As I watched one of the pastry chefs behind the counter fill my cream puffs once I ordered them, my mouth started to water. I tried the original vanilla first because it is easier to assess the quality of the cream puff without any frills. The shell of the cream puff is very good; it is crisp and soft while not being soggy. The vanilla custard is also delicious and exemplifies Beard Papa’s mission statement of using only fresh ingredients. The custard filling, which is pastry cream with whipped cream folded in, is speckled all throughout with fresh seeds from real vanilla bean pods. While the texture was more like that of pudding instead of the thicker filling normally found in these airy treats, it was tasty nonetheless and complemented the crisp shell. The éclair flavor, on the other hand, was a step above the original. The classic shell was elevated by the pastry cream-like filling that was less like the pudding filling of the original vanilla and had a thick layer of chocolate ganache made from imported chocolate. The thick layer of deep chocolate complemented the sweet filling and was balanced by the doughy shell. The last flavor, dulce de leche, was also tasty. The sweet cream filling melded with the classic salty Spanish caramel and created an interesting and addicting flavor combination. In addition to cream puffs, Beard Papa’s, seeing as they are a Japanese based company, also offers many Japanese inspired treats, which is a way they stay true to their heritage. There is mochi ice cream, which is a Japanese treat of sticky rice that is pounded into a fondant-like paste that encloses different ice cream flavors like green tea and chocolate. Additionally, Beard Papa’s has a Japanese take on the Paris-Brest. A Paris-Brest is a dessert that is a point of pride in France and is comprised of choux pastry, piped into the shape of a circle that is later filled with praline crème after it is baked. The Beard Papa’s take is their traditional crisp choux dough piped into a circle filled with green tea-flavored pastry cream.

The prices are very reasonable, considering they are a bakery in New York that serves high-quality and unique treats. I was impressed that, as an international chain, Beard Papa’s has been able to continue providing customers with decent cream puffs that are filled fresh to order. Overall, I would highly recommend Beard Papa’s if you are looking for an indulgent sweet on the cheap.