What Happened to Banjo’s Muffins?

RIP muffins. Pic: Banjo’s FB

Muffin better than a sweet treat.

Banjo’s have quietly removed muffins from their menu, and I am mad about it.

I don’t know exactly when this change happened, but I remember when I first noticed. It was November 2025, and Banjo’s were ramping up their Christmas promotions.

Going to Banjo’s was a weekly habit of mine. A little treat for another week lived. I always bought myself a muffin, usually the double chocolate, sometimes raspberry or blueberry, plus a coffee and a pie or sausage roll depending on the time of day and how hungry I was.

On this fateful day, I was there for just a muffin. But as I stood in the queue and looked into the glass display, I saw there weren’t any. Just doughnuts and some Christmas-themed sweets.

Oh well, I thought. Maybe they got rid of muffins temporarily to make room for the Christmas treats.

What a hopeful fool I was.

At every Banjo’s I visited for the rest of 2025, there were no muffins. And yes, I visited multiple sites, because I am a freak and Banjo’s is an easy and reliable pick-me-up wherever I am. No muffins at any of them.

I really started to worry when Christmas ended and the muffins didn’t come back. That’s when I decided to investigate.

The first thing I did was check their social media and scroll until I found their last muffin post. It was 6 August 2025. The caption read, “Muffin better than a sweet treat! 🤤”

I agree, Banjo’s. Muffin better than a sweet treat.

6 August was a long time ago. Clearly, they’d phased out their muffins. 

But what has replaced them? Visit any Banjo’s today, or take one glance at their social media, and the replacement is staring you in the face. 

Doughnuts. More like, dough-not!

A friend’s family group chat finding out about the muffin tragedy. I’ve hidden their identities to protect them from Big Banjo’s. Pic: Paige Ling (sorry, I guess Big Banjo’s can get you)

Doughnuts (or is it ‘donuts’?) have exploded in recent years. I’ve certainly noticed it in Tasmania. When Circle of Life opened in Hobart in 2019, it was a big deal, with everyone tagging their friends on social media saying, “wanna go?!” Since then I’ve only seen more doughnuts pop up. 

And I can’t talk about Tasmania’s relationship with doughnuts without mentioning the Krispy Kreme thing.

It is a Tasmanian tradition that if you're flying home from the mainland and pass a Krispy Kreme, you bring back a big box to share with friends and family. It’s also an easy way to make a quick profit in the schoolyard.

Tasmanians have long had an obsession with Krispy Kreme. For years, people campaigned to bring the franchise here. Although I have a feeling that’s cooled a bit since they started selling them at BP service stations across the state. Some people may have finally realised they’re just… fine.

If you notice a hint of disdain in my tone, then you are correct. It is here where I will declare my hottest take: doughnuts are overrated, and it’s time we admit it.

Before you react with the usual shock and horror I get from everyone I say this to, think about it. When was the last time a doughnut really brought you joy compared to a good slice of cake, an ice cream, a tart, a pastry, or yes, a muffin? I’m talking about actual joy here, not just the light satisfaction of a decent snack.

They’re a simple culinary experience with the same boring, doughy, bready texture throughout. To make them more interesting they’re often dressed up with glazes and toppings, but are they even still a doughnut at that point?

When I think of doughnuts, I think of greed. Homer Simpson and chubby cops. When I think of muffins, I think of home. Cosiness. Grandmas. That fresh-baked smell.

Don’t get me wrong: I like doughnuts. Always have. But this whole experience has made me realise I don’t like them as much as I thought. It doesn’t help that the Banjo’s ones are thoroughly underwhelming, which my doughnut-loving friends even agreed with after I asked them to try. 

The best doughnut, if you ask me, is a hot cinnamon one. These are special. Crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, coated in cinnamon, warm and steamy. Yum! And they’ve always been easy to find in Hobart… from Donut King. Tasmania never needed Krispy Kreme. The best doughnuts have been here all along, ignored.

I’ll admit, there are bad muffins. The home-brand ones from Woolies or Coles are pretty awful. In fact, I’d say a bad muffin is worse than a bad doughnut. But a great muffin? Doughnuts can’t come close.

Why oh why did they do it?

It was in May 2025 when Banjo’s rolled out doughnuts after a successful soft launch. Now, as of March 2026, doughnuts remain their primary sweet offering. The muffins are gone. Do you know what else didn’t make it? Slices. Hedgehog, lemon, caramel, peppermint, all gone. This is also devastating. Thankfully, danishes, house cakes and scones survived the cull.

So why replace all these great treats with *shudders* doughnuts?

It’s simply a smart business decision. There’s a global doughnut boom happening. The global doughnut market is projected to grow 3.3% annually to $29.2b (US$18.8b) by 2033 from 2023, according to Allied Market Research. Then there’s the snacking trend. People have less time and shorter attention spans, so snackable foods are on the up. You can smash a doughnut in seconds. A muffin deserves better than that. It asks for your time. 

And Banjo’s has good reason to lean into this trend. They plan to double their footprint to 100 stores by 2028, focusing on Australia’s east coast. That kind of expansion isn’t cheap, and I’m sure doughnuts are helping fund it. According to QSR Media, their revenue rose by more than 10% in 2024 following the doughnut soft launch.

Can I blame a business for making a decision that boosts profits? No. It makes perfect sense. Am I still upset? Absolutely. Banjo’s muffins brought me joy. Now they’re gone.

The end?

There is no takeaway here. This has just been a ramble about me being sad that a company stopped selling something I liked. Boo-hoo.

But I know this about myself: I get weirdly passionate about small, insignificant things. This is that. So thank you for indulging me, and I hope you can forgive me for my doughnut hate speech.

I come out the other side of writing this the same as I went in: a sad, muffinless man.

Though, not entirely. 

I still haven’t found a proper replacement muffin in Hobart. If anyone knows a good one, let me know. In the meantime, I’ve started baking my own, and they’re pretty good! I really like this recipe here. Baking’s fun.

In a hyper-online world where everything always seems to be happening at once, it’s nice to switch off and make something with your hands, especially when that something is a muffin. Nothing beats that smell straight out of the oven. It’s timeless.