Sweetwater’s Donut Mill (Battle Creek)
2807 Capital Avenue SWI always feel bad when I’m gone all day on a Saturday or Sunday at work. That happened last weekend. I worked a 17 hour day on the east side of the state. L was still in bed when I left at 8:30 AM and everyone was in bed by the time I got home at 1:30 AM.
I was thinking on my way home what I could do for a little surprise for the kids. I knew I was going to sleep in a little bit on Sunday and we had a birthday party to go to so there wasn’t going to be a lot of quality family time. I knew I was passing a couple of Sweetwater’s on the way home and everyone loves donuts.
Sweetwater’s Donut Mill in Battle Creek is located right off of I-94 on Capital Avenue Southwest at the intersection with Beckley Road. It shares a building with a pay day loan company.
There’s not a lot of people in Sweetwater’s at 1:00 in the morning. The two employees were busy making donuts and restocking the shelves to get ready for the Sunday morning rush. The small seating area off to the side of the counter was empty. This Sweetwater’s is set-up very similar to the two other original stores. There is an order counter with a glass case filled with pastries, a wall with racks for the many flavors of donuts, and a small seating area with about a half dozen booths.
One of the employees stopped what she was doing and asked me how many donuts I was looking to get. I did a half dozen. My mother-in-law was at the house too so since I was getting five anyway, I just did the six to make it cheaper.
My kids really like the cheesecake donuts so I got four of those. I split it up between the NY Cheesecake….because they like the pink frosting….
…and Strawberry Cheesecake. Both are filled yeast donuts. The NY Cheesecake has a cream cheese filling while the strawberry has a strawberry cream cheese. The Strawberry Cheesecake is topped with a crumble while the NY has a “strawberry topping.”
I typically get the Oreo donut but the lady looked confused when I asked for it. She asked her colleague in the back and he said they didn’t have that. Oh no…I have to try something new! I picked the Powdered Vanilla Filled. The yeast donut is filled with a vanilla cream and rolled in powdered sugar. It’s like the best part of the mini hostess donuts we used to eat on family vacations combined with a delicious filled donut.
I didn’t know what to get for the sixth donut so I went simple. I ordered just a plain glazed donut. Nothing fancy. Just a yeast donut covered in a sugary glaze.
The donuts were a hit. There was only one and a half left by the time I got up just before 11:00. B sort of snacked on the cheesecake ones all day. We found a lot of the filling all over the living room where he kept taking his to hide and eat.
I’m always shocked at just how cheap Sweetwater’s is. I paid less than six bucks for a half dozen donuts that brought so much happiness to my family after I abandoned them for a whole Saturday.
SW Michigan Dining 
Sweetwater’s is somehow underrated in general. I grew up down in Hillsdale County and even down there people knew to MAKE SURE you stopped at Sweetwater’s if you were in Battle Creek to go to the mall, or on your way to Kalamazoo, or whatever.
My driver’s training “final drive” years ago was, in fact, was to drive from down there up to Battle Creek specifically so we could get Sweetwater’s
I know there are “boutique” bakeries scattered here and there that get all sorts of pub because they’re weird and fancy (and usually quite expensive), but Sweetwater’s is just so good and consistent and I’d put them up against anyone in the state.
Whenever I have family in town from the Chicago area, they leave with a couple dozen from the Stadium Drive location…..the boutique bakeries are fun and delicious but nothing compares to Sweetwater’s.