Baskin Robbins Easter Egg Hunt Ice Cream (product information)

Last year, I noticed that Easter is starting to pick up steam in Japan. Baskin Robbins is definitely one of the biggest promoters of it. This year, they've got ice cream that will allow you to hunt for Easter eggs without having to do any of that pesky boiling, dying, and decorating. You can just hunt for them in your ice cream. The three colors of "eggs" (chocolate) are the only ones. The ice cream is, and this is where this takes on a uniquely Japanese bent, cotton candy and melon. Yes, the traditional Easter melon flavor. I hope it sells well for them. 

Baskin Robbins Strawberry Balsamic Vinegar Ice Cream (product information)

Strawberry Berrishima - Image courtesy of Baskin Robbins

I've read several food blogs for many years and I'm familiar with all of the foodie fads like adding balsamic vinegar to everything from salad dressing to fruit to your dog's organic doggie biscuits which you lovely crafted with your own two hands and baked into little heart and bone shapes. Foodies love them some balsamic vinegar.

Personally, I hate it. I have tried it and the things it is mixed with several times and there is a wine/vinegar combination flavor that just does not work for me. Frankly, it reminds me of blood. I can't say why it tastes like blood, and yes, from being a very young child and licking blood off of a wound before I knew better, I do remember what it tasted like. Yes, I know that sounds gross, but I wasn't the only child who did that. At any rate, I hate balsamic vinegar, though I actually really like other types of vinegar.

Baskin Robbins is playing to the types of people who were so disgusting as to lick the droplets of blood off of their scrapes and cuts when they were in first grade. If you think mascerating your strawberries with balsamic vinegar is the bee's knees, then this combo of mascarpone cheese ice cream with rippons of strawberry and said vinegar is for you. 

Baskin Robbins 40th Anniversary Sundaes and Mugs

Image from Baskin Robbins Japan. 

Baskin Robbins Japan has been churning out (no pun intended, really) ice cream in that island nation for 40 years. To celebrate this, they're selling a special "anniversary sundae" made up of one scoop of ice cream with a bit of whipped cream and some colorful candies. I guess the 40th isn't nearly as impressive as some others since that's a pretty puny sundae.

The mugs are actually rather nicely designed to have both a retro feel (the stripes bring about thoughts of old-timey ice cream parlors) and modern elegance. If I were in Japan, I wouldn't need another mug (as they appeared to reproduce when food touches them like porcelain tribbles) so I probably wouldn't buy the sundae to get the cup, but I'd surely get one if I hadn't had a cabinet overstuffed with dishes. Note how they kindly put the sundae in a paper cup inside of the mug so that you don't mess it up with the food. Also, the sundae being so anemic means that it'd languish down in the bottom and require some sort of deep sea camera to get a picture of it for promotional purposes.

They are available only at some Baskin Robbins shops and in limited quantities. No price is given because old "31" is a franchise and pricing is controlled to some extent by the owners. They will be available up until May 10 or the end of their supplies. You can choose your scoop, but I'm guessing you can't choose whether you get the pink or green mug.

Fujiya-Baskin Robbins Collaboration Chocolate

I haven't lived in America for quite some time, but I don't recall there being as many cross-company collaborations as I tend to see in Japan. I'm sure there are some, but they seem to be a bigger deal here. "Look" chocolates by Fujiya are something that I haven't covered in this blog before, but they're a filled chocolate which usually has just one flavor represented. Because this is supposed to be a mix of Baskin Robbins ice cream flavors, this box has a mix.

I have been seeing these around for a long time, and did want to buy one eventually and review it, but one of my husband's students gave him this and spared me the 100 yen ($1.11). I still see them at various shops including some 100 yen stores, drug stores (which often carry snacks), and Okashi no Machioka discount snack shops. There are 12 small bits, about 3 cm x 2 cm (1.1 in. x .8 in.), of chocolate in the box and four flavors - strawberry cheesecake, jamoca coffee, orange sherbet, and vanilla. Each candy is 19 calories and the whole box is 229.

Each of these had a soft, creamy filling and a bittersweet chocolate shell. The chocolate melted easily in my mouth despite having been refrigerated

Strawberry cheesecake:

This had a nice, slightly tart strawberry flavor, but it was quite weak and tended to fade away in the bittersweet chocolate's intensity. For someone like me who isn't a big fan of strawberry chocolates, this was fine, but it will disappoint someone who likes to taste strawberry more potently in their candies.

Jamoca coffee:

The coffee notes of this definitely competed better with the bittersweet shell. I could taste the bitterness of the coffee and the smoother milky flavor. I enjoyed this one, and would consider it the best addition to the box.

Orange sherbet:

As a big fan of orange sherbet, I was looking forward to this one the most. The surprising thing is that the filling really did taste an awful lot like Baskin Robbins orange sherbet. I was blown away by the verisimilitude. This was also nice, but I think that it didn't match the chocolate flavor as well as the Jamoca coffee flavor.

Vanilla:

This one mainly tasted like smooth, milky chocolate. The vanilla flavor really didn't show much of itself but rather muted the strong bittersweet notes. This was surely a nice enough chocolate. It just wasn't very distinctive.

This entire collection is pretty nice. The chocolates contain fresh cream and butter and have a decadent feel on the tongue. For a consumer level candy, they are rather rich and I would recommend them for anyone who likes bittersweet chocolate. If you're a milk chocolate fan though, you may want to give them a pass because the bittersweet nature really does dominate a fair amount.