How do you like your doughnuts? Classic and traditional? Unique and exciting? Evolving with flavors of today’s most popular desserts and ingredients? Cello’s Doughnuts has some of each — and more!
— which is perhaps why it was able to hold up to its own despite the presence of big doughnut chains, both local and international brands, in the market.

When Cello’s Doughnuts opened the doors of its first store on 10 July 2004 (which is 19 years ago), there was a global doughnut trend happening and Jutes and Cello Templo, fresh college graduates at that time, wanted to try to make their own version of doughnuts and see if consumers would like them. The first store was located along Katipunan Ave. in Quezon City, just across Ateneo de Manila University.

“We wanted to make something that we liked to eat and is readily available in our neighborhood,” explains Jutes.

And so they did. All handmade, Cello’s doughnuts initially came in seven simple and clean flavors — Honey Glazed, Oreo, Chocnut, Chocolate, Candy Sprinkles, Choco Sprinkles and Cheese. Much to the couple’s delight, people liked their doughnuts, The Cheese Doughnuts, which come with a generous topping of grated cheese, easily became the best-seller and thus the signature doughnut of Cello’s. Then and now, it represented the simple, clean taste of Cello’s doughnuts.

Through the years, Cello’s has developed an extensive line of doughnut flavors — 26! — and has been able to compete well with the giants in the doughnut industry by having its own unique flavors and signature doughnut taste. Yes, it carries popular flavors that doughnut lovers would look for in every doughnut shop, such as Boston Crème, Chocolate, Strawberry, and Oreo. But it also has unique flavors that are truly its own, including Crème Brulee, Milk, Coffee, PB&J and Calamansi.

More recently, Cello’s has also been able to develop a new line of doughnuts called cream doughnuts, with an initial offering of two flavors — Original Cream Doughnut and Choco Cream Doughnut. Very similar to the Italian maritozzo, these will definitely satisfy the craving of doughnut lovers who like overloaded fillings.

One more product of Cello’s Doughnuts that never fails to catch people’s attention is the Pillows. In place of the usual doughnut holes offered by other doughnut chains, calling them by different names, Cello’s has slightly bigger Pillows, which are square-shaped, bite-sized doughnuts. Sold by 10s, they can be eaten on their own but are best when taken with dips. The four dips available are Dark Chocolate, White Chocolate, Nutella and Strawberry.

To round out the doughnut and coffee experience for Cello’s customers, Jutes and Cello made a special trip to Italy to study about coffee so they could offer the best coffee to go with their doughnuts.
“Coffee-wise, we can be considered as a third wave café, since our beans are carefully curated and we follow modern coffee preparation standards to make sure your coffee and doughnut experience is top notch,” says Jutes.

Since Cello’s now offers serious coffee to go with its signature doughnuts, its stores now look and feel like a more up-to-date café. Yes, from one store in Katipunan, Cello’s now has three stores, the other two being located at Molito Alabang and Shangri-La Plaza.