McDonald's Salt Caramel and Mango Passion Orange McFlurry (product announcement)

When I was growing up, McDonald's had two ice cream options. You could have a shake or a pathetic little sundae made up of vanilla ice cream and some anemic chocolate sauce. Because I am not a fan of any fast food, and less of a fan of the golden arches than most other types of said cuisine, I hadn't really noticed the whole "McFlurry" business. I have a hazy recollection of when they were introduced and that they were either a collaboration with Dairy Queen or a rip-off of their "Blizzard" concept, but that's pretty much it. I've never had one in either Japan or America, but every nerve in my Spidey sense says they are probably pretty sweet.

The specimens above are new McFlurry flavors - salt caramel (252 calories) and a mixture of mango, passion fruit and orange (230 calories). If someone were to force feed me one of these, I'd go for the fruity one, though I have to say that the salt caramel one could be intriguing. The funny thing about these is not the flavors. Though they are somewhat unusual, the whole salty sweets thing has been a big fad for years now (it was in force when I left in March 2012) and passion fruit is the only slightly uncommon element in the fruit one. The bizarre thing is that McDonald's plans to offer these only between 10:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. It strikes me as weird that they'd choose such a time period as it makes these seem more like "brunch" options than a sweet treat. Personally, I think offering them from 1:00-4:00 would have been a better choice, but I'm guessing this limit is based on the effort and time it takes to make them than when consumer demand might be highest.

Haagen-Dazs Sakura and Rose Ice Cream (product announcement)

I've been watching some "documentary" shows as of late. One of my favorite series is BBC period "farm" and lifestyle shows in which some anthropologists find a homestead in England which still resembles the type that was lived in in a bygone era and work the land and home in the fashion of a particular time. So far, I've seen a series on Edwardian and medieval farms and have started another on World War II era living.

One of the things I've learned is the rose flavoring used to be a pretty big deal. Medieval folks ate flowers and others consumed rose hips. During World War II, when it was hard to come by fruit-based sources of Vitamin C, rose hips kept scurvy at bay.

I don't know about the history of eating flowers or flower-flavored items in Japan, but I do know that I was never a fan of "sakura" flavored food and it made an appearance every spring - hand in hand with all of the talk of cherry blossom viewing. I'm sure that Haagen-Dazs Japan has chosen these flavors based on the time of year and that they will appeal to young women mainly. That delicate and ornate font as well as the pretty flowers make it rather unlikely that the average businessman will be chowing down on one of these at his desk during tea time.

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. 

Haagen Dazs Opera Cake Ice Cream (product information)

Quite a few years back, I read a few blogs written by women who took part in something called the "Daring Baker's Challenge". I don't know if it still goes on because a web search yields about a billion hits, but I'm pretty sure that it is still going on. I don't know who runs it or who decides what the most recent "dare" is, but someone has to be in charge of setting up difficult tasks for people to accomplish.

One of the earliest challenges for these "daring" sorts was opera cake. I didn't know what it was, but I could see that it was immensely complex with multiple layers of cake, ganache, chocolate, coffee, and almond. It was enough to make me decide that I didn't want to take any dares in my kitchen.

This ice cream doesn't exactly come up to the challenge either. It incorporates all of the flavors of opera cake, but it has little of the complexity. It's largely a butter cream ice cream with a thin layer of almond dough ice cream topped with a layer of chocolate sauce and a few sprinkles of gold leaf on top. The flavors are pretty interesting even if it doesn't have the sophistication of the layers of cake. I was just hoping that there would be actual bits of cake in the ice cream, but that isn't a common variation in Japan. They're not quite that decadent. 

Haagen Daz Royal Cassis Milk Ice Cream (product announcement)

One of my friends once indicated, in his own unique, colorful, and thoroughly charming way, that he believed that it was a waste of my talent and potential to be writing about snack foods. I could see where he was coming from, though I did remind him that I did have another blog. 

The purpose of continuing to do this blog is that it encourages me to consider trying new things. In fact, part of its original intent was to push me to try more Japanese food back when my tastes were more conservative. As time has gone by, and I've broadened my experience to encompass quite a lot of what there is to offer, it's taken on a new purpose and that is that tracking Japanese snacks informs me about marketing, culture, and the origin of various foods. I've expanded the blog to try and include one non-Japanese review per week (usually on Fridays) in order to broaden my sampling and knowledge, but there is still plenty on the Japanese front to learn from as this product illustrated to me.

I had heard of "creme de cassis" before going to Japan, but only as a word in reference to alcoholic drinks, but I didn't know what cassis was (it's the French word for blackcurrant). It's not popular as a flavor or fruit in the U.S. - most likely because it isn't a native plant and never was incorporated into the common food culture. This ice cream includes not only cassis, but Marc de Champagne. Of course, I had never heard of that before either, but my research says that it is a colorless champagne made from the seeds and stalks that are a byproduct of making champagne. As you can see, I am pushed to become more broadly educated by virtue of writing about snacks.

Haagen Daz is marketing this as a holiday (Christmas and New Year's) special and it's supposed to wed the tangy acidity of cassis with the creaminess of milk and the warmth of the brandy. It's an extremely elegant combination which I probably would not sample even if I have the opportunity because I'm not a fan of boozy sweets. Still, I find it a reflection of the larger culture in Japan that such sophisticated offerings are created for the consumer market. It's not that we don't have such things in the U.S. - we do - but rather that they tend to be more available as specialty products by smaller artisan or craft makers. 

Haagen Dazs Japonais Ice Cream (product announcement)

Starting from October 6, Haagen Dazs will be offering a "Japonais" flavor of ice cream in single serving containers. I have done the minimal amount of investigation and learned that the name of this is French for "Japanese". I guess that lends this an air of elegance, but it seems a little silly using a French name on an American ice cream in Japan. That being said, I'm sure that this is not a rare attempt to add a little European flair to a product by giving it a more "exotic" sounding name.

I've mentioned before in this blog that what people who aren't Japanese regard as more adventurous or exotic flavors than the dreck we get here at home are actually pretty conservative in Japan. This red bean and green tea ice cream, though it looks lovely in the illustration, is downright boring in its flavor options. Red beans and green tea are the equivalent of peanut butter and chocolate in Japan. They're everywhere and they're safe choices to cater to a market with conservative tastes. It's designed to set the hearts of young women with enough disposable income to pay $3-$4 for a tiny serving of ice cream aflutter.

Random Picture 61

Click to see a larger picture. 

You know it's warming up when the "soft cream" trucks start rolling along the streets. This one was parked near Ueno park during the latter part of the cherry blossom viewing season. More Japanese people like soft serve ice cream than the real deal (hand scooped), and it's cheaper and easier to find. To be fair, I finally tried some "soft cream" in Japan for the first time and it was pretty good. The flavors on offer here are "sakura" (cherry blossom), green tea, sweet potato, melon, chocolate and vanilla mix, vanilla and mango. I wish I had bought some, but I wasn't really in the mood at the time. I'm thinking the sweet potato might have been pretty nifty.

Pino Sweet Potato Ice Cream

Pino is a bit of an institution in Japan and yet I think this is only the second time that I have purchased it in my 22 years in Japan. The basic version is vanilla ice cream with a chocolate shell, but like a standard ice cream bar back home. Because this is Japan, and the people stay tiny by making it easy to eat tiny portions, the folks behind Pino (that would be confectionery mega-maker, Morinaga) took the basic bar idea and created tiny little bon-bons that you can spear on a plastic toothpick.

While this idea may sound quite simple, Morinaga appears to have applied some careful considerations to the product design. They're the sort of formula touches that you wouldn't consider unless you bought the product, tried to eat it, and had some messy problems. For instance, a chocolate coating which is too hard will shatter when you spear the bon-bon with the plastic spear, so the coating can't get too brittle when frozen. The ice cream also cannot become so hard that you have a lot of problems penetrating it with the pick. Both of these were surprisingly not an issue when I sampled this sweet potato Pino. Though the ice cream gets pretty firm, the shell only fractures around the insertion point and you don't have to fight too hard to stab the heart of it so you can deliver it to your waiting mouth.

The odd thing about this particular Pino is that it is labeled "Dessert". It makes me wonder how the other varieties are conceptualized. Aren't they all "dessert" or do the fine folks at Morinaga think the other versions are meal varieties? At any rate, the coating on this is labeled as "chocolate" but it is actually also sweet-potato-flavored and slightly purple in color. The interior is slightly yellow to help emulate the coloring of a typical Japanese sweet potato.

The flavor is quite sweet and there is a strong element of sweet potato that borders on, but doesn't go over the edge of overbearing. I detected a "baked" flavor which I strongly associate with sweet potato cakes (one of which is pictured on the box cover) and found that to be quite surprising. That must be a tricky element to include. I also thought there might be a hint of cinnamon, but my taste buds may have been deceiving me. The ice cream is fairly average. In fact, I've had creamier ice milk, but that doesn't make this in any way unacceptable as mass-produced ice cream. Since you get 6 (10 ml.) bon-bons per box for a mere 100 yen ($1.20), you can't really expect the ice cream to blow off your socks. It is good, just not fantastic.

I don't buy much ice cream because I am afraid I'll either gobble it all down or leave it to develop a thick layer of freezer burn in an effort to save myself from its caloric load, but I really should sample more Pino as each bon-bon is only 32 calories and portion control is so easy. This was good, but a bit too sweet in general for me. That being said, I'd probably buy it again if it is seasonally re-released in autumn/winter of next year. I just can't see buying it too terribly often.

Meiji Crunch Bar

I'm not an impulsive shopper. Despite the fact that I buy snacks for review on a regular basis, I rarely just snap up something that catches my fancy. Usually, I'll scope out the situation and think about the items that catch my eye. I'll return later and buy the things I'm serious about. I should note that this is something that has occurred as a result of my snack review blogging. I was far less cautious before I'd eaten half of the available snacks on the shelves in Tokyo (not literally).

Usually, this somewhat careful approach serves me well. I don't have a lot of partially eaten boxes around the apartment save the items that it takes me a long time to eat. On rare occasions though, I have one of those "you snooze, you lose" experiences and this Meiji Crunch Bar ice milk was very nearly one of them. When I first saw it, I was inclined to buy it but wanted to wait until later. This was in part due to my caution, but in larger part it was due to the fact that my freezer was so full that I couldn't squeeze a single tortilla into it, let alone a box of 6 ice milk bars.

When I returned a few days later to buy these, the entire stock was gone. The card was still in the freezer, so I kept checking back and they finally returned. These bars are either quite popular, quite good, or have some novel value I hadn't been aware. For a moment, I knew what it was like to be Japanese and want something more simply because it appeared that everyone else wanted it (hence the reason people are waiting in line for hours to try whatever food fad of the month is going on).

Obviously, the bars were put back in stock and I got my hands on a box. I picked this up at Inageya supermarket for 198 yen ($2.09) for a box of 6 small bars. Each bar is about half the size of a conventional ice cream bar in the U.S. (55 ml./1.9 oz.). and has 119 calories. The size is quite good for a satisfactory frozen snack with good portion control.

The bar smells a little like chocolate, but more than that it has the scent of the coating which is a little like cookies (it's flour-based) without the sugary sweetness. The bar itself is rather sweet, but not overbearing. The ice cream doesn't taste like much of anything except powdered milk (which is one of the ingredients), but it has a nice creamy texture when you let the bar sit for a few minutes before eating it. The chocolate coating is fine, but is a weak flavor component because it's not that thick. Mainly, you get a sense of sweetness and the crunchy bits on the outside.

As I ate this, I was strongly reminded of "ice cream day" when I was in junior high school. About one a week or so, kids could buy ice cream for a quarter to 50 cents (yes, I'm that old) and this smelled, felt, and tasted like the bars we used to buy. Of course, I grew up poor and rarely bought ice cream on ice cream day, but it's the type of sense memory that is all the more potent because the experience was rare and special.

This is by no means a premium frozen confection experience, but it's also a nice one nonetheless. I'd place this above average for a domestically produced ice milk bar that is reasonably priced. I enjoyed this quite a lot, but mainly because of the crunchy and sweet and creamy texture balance. If you require some solid flavor from your vanilla ice cream and chocolate coating, then stick with the Haagen Daas bars and their 400 yen ($4.23) price tag. If you want to live a little of your misspent youthful calories, then I'd recommend giving this a chance. I liked it, and I'd definitely buy it again provided it doesn't keep selling out.

Note: This is also sold as a single, larger bar in convenience stores, but I haven't seen it around any of my local shops.

7-11 Mikan Bar Ice Candy

Sometimes I wonder what inspires a particular business to consistently stock something. For instance, why do Natural Lawson's stock a lot of Fuwa Fuwa marshmallow treats? Why does Family Mart stock a ton of kid's candy? Well, okay, it is called "family" mart, but I'm not sure that anyone takes it literally. I see plenty of people in there who are too scary to have ever married, let alone produced any offspring. This question is on my mind because 7-11 seems to stock sherbet-based frozen confections and no other shop appears to do so (at least not in my area). Previously, I got the yummy yuzu sherbet (that sounds like a brand name, or the name of some cartoon fruit mascot, "Yummy Yuzu") and now they have these mikan "ice candy" bars.

The thing that really draws my attention to these sorts of things, besides the fact that they are sherbet and I can't get it in many places, is the low calorie count per bar. At 62 calories per 60 ml. (2 oz.) bar, they're a very modest treat. The price is also very reasonable at 198 yen ($2.14) per 5 bars. It's the sort of thing that is nice to have around as the temperatures start to do their usual May fluctuations between cold enough for a comforter and so hot you're sweating in the sun.

Orange treats often have a distinctive scent, even when they are fake, but these didn't smell like much of anything other than a generic ice pop (Popsicle) scent. The bars are similar to the "cream bars" that I reviewed previously in that they have a hard ice pop outer shell with a softer interior. At the top of the bar, the shell is very thick, but it is much thinner through most of the center and it's easier to concentrate on the sherbet as the shell easily shatters when you get to the middle. The sherbet center has the sort of texture you'd expect and is sweet and tangy with classic orange sherbet notes. Note that this uses 40% mikan (a Japanese orange that is sweet and flavorful) juice.

This bar is a little sweeter than I'd like, but really quite good. I can say wholeheartedly that I'd buy this again because this review is actually of the second box that I purchased. I hope 7-11 keeps these around for awhile because I'd like to be able to keep buying them throughout the summer.

Daiichi Vanilla Bar

The Japanese seem to have a taste for sweetened condensed milk which I never developed. This is reflected in the fact that they'll squirt some from a tube onto their strawberries. In fact, there are some pervy videos out there of Japanese women provocatively squirting milky, semi-translucent fluid onto their mouths and faces. It's sweetened condensed milk, but we're supposed to think it's something else.

These are made by the same company that made the chocolate cream bar which I reviewed favorably. I bought this at Lawson's 100-yen shop where it was on display in the freezer case next to the chocolate version.

I had some hopes that this "vanilla bar" was actually vanilla. Unfortunately, I didn't taste any vanilla in it at all. The reason that I mentioned the love sweetened condensed milk at the start of this post is that this is the sort of frozen treat that is clearly designed for Japanese tastes. It doesn't smell like anything at all and the taste is like powdered milk. It's sweet but not overwhelmingly so.

The texture of the ice milk inside of this bar is much firmer than the chocolate cream bar in the interior and less brittle and hard on the outside. I even let it soften a bit to see if it would take on the same super creamy aspects as the chocolate bar, but no joy.

On the plus side, each bar is only 85 calories and you get three 75-ml. (2.5 oz.) bars for 99 yen ($1.06). On the minus side, the ingredients include palm oil and Sucralose and, though this is not bad at all, it just doesn't taste like much. Clearly, there is no vanilla flavoring in it, or so little as to not be detectable. If you like powdered or condensed milk enough to eat it in ice cream form, this might float your boat, but if you like something which is more flavorful, give this a pass. Note that this almost made "indifferent", but I can't in good conscience give that rating when I threw out the last bar rather than eat it.

Glico 80-calorie Rum Raisin Ice Milk

While researching rum raisin flavors, I came across the word A'bunadh; that is a word for a Scottish whiskey with a "rum raisin finish" (according to Wikipedia). I don't think that this whiskey had anything to do with the ice cream flavor, and I never did find out the origins of rum raisin ice cream. The only thing I did discover was that my notion that only toothless old grannies and grampies enjoyed it was dead wrong. Plenty of young folks seem to enjoy it, too, but perhaps that's because they think they're going to get loaded if they put away enough of it.

Though I'm not really a big fan of rum raisin ice cream, I decided to try this low calorie version because my only options in the Glico "calorie control" line are vanilla, chocolate with chocolate chips, green tea, and this. Though I haven't reviewed them, I have eaten the vanilla and chocolate before. The chocolate is very sub-standard. The flavor is very weak. The vanilla is also lacking in any real flavor, but does have a blandly pleasant generic dairy taste.


I went for the rum raisin because I thought it would be more flavorful than the other offerings, and boy howdy, I was right. This smells of rum and the first bite is super strong rum flavoring. As your taste buds get saturated, the heavy rum flavoring seems to mellow a bit, but it's still quite present throughout. The raisins are simply small shredded bits of raisin, so you can barely detect them either as a taste or texture. This is much more of a "rum flavored" ice cream than rum raisin.

When I ate this, I let it sit and get just so slightly melted around the edges. This makes gives you a greater sense of a creamy texture even though this is ice milk. Like the 80-calorie monaka that I reviewed before, this is made with polydextrose. It also contains Sucralose and Maltitol. For the privilege of eating 110 ml. (about a half cup) of ice milk, I paid about 150 yen ($1.68) at AM/PM convenience store. "Calorie control" certainly doesn't come cheap.

I liked this about as much as I'm going to like rum raisin as a flavor. I was pleased that this was so flavorful, but I wished that there had been actual raisins rather than the tattered remains of what looked like 2 raisins. I also wished that the rum flavor hadn't been so strong, but even a booze sissy like me didn't find it to be oppressive. I'd certainly buy this again if I found myself in the mood for this particular flavor.

Daiichi Chocolate Cream Bar

Armies of snacks go unnoticed by me when I shop. I bypass them for the same reason that most people do, their packaging doesn't do anything to grab me or illustrate the food contained within very well. The chocolate ice milk bars pictured above have been in the freezer case of the local 99-yen shop for ages, but I never gave them a second glance. Part of the reason for this was that I always saw them from the side and I thought they were these tubes of liquid that you freeze to make Popsicle-like treats (an ice pop). It also didn't help that these were shoved in a corner of the freezer case as if they were trying to hide from customers.

These are made by an ice cream and ice milk manufacturer named Daiichi. It's a very small company which only has 40 employees and was established in 1950. They have several interesting looking confections, few of which I have seen in my local markets. Their line includes monaka (ice cream or milk wrapped in a cake-cone like shell), cones, ice milk and frozen confection bars, and daifuku-style frozen treats (ice cream or milk wrapped in mochi). They also make ice cream for store brands on consignment. If you've ever been to the Peacock or Co-op (Coop) markets and bought their brand of vanilla ice cream in cups, it was made by Daiichi.


They also make ice cream products for Lawson's 99-yen shops. I saw the package of bars that I'm reviewing today in the frozen foods case at our local Lawson's. There were both chocolate and vanilla varieties and I was drawn to them after investigating the calorie information on the back and finding they were the "cheapest" treat among the ice cream and ice milk selections. There are 3 servings with only 84 calories per bar. I decided to buy the chocolate one because it looked like Fudgesicles. As is so often the case in Japan, things aren't always as they appear.


The inside of this bar is actually ice-cream-like ice milk. It's very soft and creamy with a firm shell. The shell is fairly thin and is clearly there to allow the ice milk to be eaten on a stick instead of out of a cup with a spoon. It's a very interesting concept and has one drawback; the stick isn't inserted into the shell but directly into the ice milk so it's easy to yank the stick right out if you try to slide the bar out of the wrapper by pulling "down" on it. It goes right back in though, and seems to hold just fine while you eat the bar.

The bar has a light cocoa scent and the outer shell, which I licked at first because I thought it was like a Fudgesicle, has very little flavor at all. The taste when you bite into the bar and get the ice cream is rather mild cocoa and not very sweet, but both the chocolate flavor and sweetness compound on your tastes buds as you eat more and more. You can tell they skimped on the cocoa to some extent, though fans of mild chocolate may prefer this over the intense bittersweet flavor of some Japanese chocolate.

Each bar is 85 ml., and the same size as a standard Popsicle. This is not, by far, premium or fabulous ice cream. It is, however, a really nice frozen treat for someone trying to watch their weight and their wallet. It's sufficiently sweet and enjoyable, and may even quash a chocolate craving for some. I wish the chocolate flavor was deeper, but I have no quibbles about the soft, light texture. The texture was super creamy and reminded me of a marriage between whipped cream and ice cream.

I compare this directly with the Glico Calorie Control line of frozen treats when I evaluate it. That line of treats, which include monaka as well as cups of ice milk, sell for 160 yen ($1.77) each and have 80-some ml. of ice milk (similar to one of these bars). The Calorie Control line chocolate ice milk is very similar to these bars in flavor, that is weak, but serviceable. Given the choice of buying chocolate cream bars for 99 yen ($1.10) and getting three 84-calorie frozen sweets or just one Glico chocolate chocolate chip cup of ice milk at 80 calories for 160 yen, I'd choose these in a heartbeat.* My high rating is based on a combination of price, calories, and texture more so than a stellar taste experience (and the fact that I expect to buy these repeatedly).


*Note that I didn't compare ingredients since neither the Glico ice milk nor this is very impressive. They're not nutritious or good for you, but rather attractive as occasional frozen treats to fill an urge for ice cream without a ton of calories. This has sugar, grape sugar, and palm oil (all bad news) and the Glico is chock full artificial sweeteners.

7-11 Yuzu Sherbet

I've been a fan of orange sherbet since I was a young adult, but haven't had easy access to it since coming to Japan. It simply isn't something that tends to be carried in Japanese markets and convenience stores. I'm guessing this is because there is a kind of ice that is meant to resemble kakigori (Japanese shaved ice with syrup, like a sophisticated snow cone) that serves a similar area of the market. This "ice" is generally offered in ramune ("soda", lemonade or bubble gum flavor), lemon, and orange flavors so I think it occupies the same citrus-flavored, non-cream-based frozen confection niche as sherbet.

These Japanese ice treats are nice, but their texture is rather pebbly and they tend to be too sweet and syrupy. It's like a compressed version of shaved ice. It has the general flavor of kakigori, but lacks the fine textural benefits that you get with real shaved ice. It also tends to start melting and turn into slush pretty quickly. Essentially, it's a cheap knock-off of something which is much better in its original form.


I was very surprised to discover this yuzu sherbet in the freezer case at my local 7-11. It was 100 yen ($1.10) for a 110 milliliter serving (about a half cup). There are 80 calories in one serving and most of that is coming from sugar as that is the first ingredient. Since yuzu is like lemon, it's not surprising that lots of sugar has to be added to make it palatable in sweets.

This sherbet smells citrus-like, but only faintly. Sherbet just isn't one of those things with a strong scent. The flavor is a good mix of yuzu and just the right level of sweetness. Since the flavor of yuzu is unique, I can only say that it is like a cross between grapefruit and lemon, with just a hint of orange in the finish. The texture is pretty much spot-on for sherbet. It's a little grainy, but not in a bad way. It's simply what happens when a frozen confection is made which doesn't have cream in it.

The standard I hold sherbet to is the type of stuff that I pay a fortune for at Baskin Robbins because that is pretty much the only place in Japan that consistently sells sherbet of any sort. This isn't quite up to the same quality as Baskin Robbins's product, but it is also quite a lot cheaper and just as tasty. Mainly, the texture isn't quite up to the standard of old 31 Flavors varieties.

If this sticks around past the winter yuzu trend, I will definitely buy it again. In fact, I wouldn't mind stocking up on it just to keep it around. If you like sherbet in citrus flavors, it's a no-brainer to sample this.

Glico 80-Calorie Monaka

I've often thought it would be interesting to create a blog devoted to low calorie, diet and health foods in Japan. Of course, I soon realized that such a blog could only update about once a week, if that, because there aren't many of such products. In America, people can create entire blogs devoted to low calorie, reduced fat, and healthy foods, but I'm hard-pressed to find anything in line with their review fodder except the odd zero calorie soft drink. I realize that eating "fake" foods in order to save calories isn't the best way to approach one's diet. However, I also think there is nothing wrong with the occasional indulgence that doesn't come with a hefty calorie price tag.

All of the ice cream in Japan is very rich and fatty. I rarely find a small cup of ice cream with less than 285 calories, and many are over 300. The only exception is Glico's line of 80-calorie ice milk treats. They sell small cups (110 ml.) of green tea, chocolate with chocolate pieces, rum raisin, and vanilla for 150 yen each ($1.69). These are difficult to find, but I can locate them at Natural Lawson's and one of the Family Mart convenience stores in range of my apartment. I have never seen them at local markets.

I was surprised to find that they also carry a low-calorie monaka ice milk sandwich. It is also about 150 yen, but has only 82 ml. of ice milk. According to their web site, they offer green tea and vanilla versions of these monaka, but I've never seen them. The vanilla version has red beans on it instead of the chocolate coating that this one has. All of these are part of what Glico calls their "calorie control" line.


One thing that one has to keep in mind when eating these types of foods is that the bar has to be lowered relative to other types of ice cream and ice milk. The question isn't how this stacks up to full-fat ice cream, but how good it is as a cold confection for 80 calories. Keep in mind that the first ingredient is polydextrose, a form of soluble fiber used to replace sugar. It also contains artificial sweeteners and tofu. Some of the ingredients aren't listed, however. The chocolate and monaka are simply listed as "chocolate coating" and "monaka".

When you give it a sniff, the first thing you smell is the monaka and that is like a cake cone. The monaka is rather soft and has absorbed a bit of moisture. I don't know if it might have been crisper if it hadn't sat in my freezer for a week, but my guess is that it wouldn't. Monaka aren't exceptionally crisp even when fresh.

The ice milk has a bit of a generic dairy flavor, reminiscent of powdered milk but not in a bad way. The chocolate coating is very sparse, but there is enough of it to add flavor. If you look at the picture above, you can see that the coating is fragmented rather than a solid sheet like I got in the Morinaga Jumbo Monaka bar. Mainly, it tastes cold and sweet with some bittersweet chocolate flavor. The flavors are not strong and I really wish there was a vanilla component to the ice milk.

This was fairly enjoyable. I can say that it was definitely worth 80 calories, but it won't do if you've got a hankering for some real ice cream. It will do if you have a craving for a cold treat. I would buy this again, but I can't say that it really "wowed" me so much as simply pleasantly satisfied me.

Lotte Yukimi Daifuku Mini

Ice cream is not a winter food, but that doesn't mean that it can't be marketed as such. "Yukimi daifuku" means "snow viewing rice cake filled with sweets". The web site for this product mentions that you should sit under the kotatsu. A kotatsu is a table with a heating element stuck under it so you can sit on your ass and stay warm in winter. The table has a blanket to hold the heat in, but you're screwed if you have to get up for any reason so many people sit under them for hours and hours when it's cold. I guess it serves the dual purpose of increasing your chances of storing winter fat.

The back of the box shows school kids stuffing themselves with some daifuku. Why? I don't know.

Word is that "yukimi", or snow viewing, is supposed to be a traditional seasonal activity like watching the cherry blossoms. I'm guessing this works pretty well in the northern part of Japan, but in Tokyo (and southern parts of Japan) where we see snow in very small amounts about once or twice a year tops, I wouldn't be holding my breath waiting for a nice snowy day.


Lotte's yukimi daifuku mini is a small ball of vanilla ice milk wrapped in a soft mochi (glutinous rice pounded until it is uniform and stretchy in texture). Word is that the predecessor to this confection, released in 1980, was a ball of ice cream wrapped in marshmallow. There are 9 balls in a plastic tray with a little plastic fork to help you pick them up and eat them. Each is about 5 cm (about 2 in.) in diameter and 50 calories.


Though this is promoted as "ice cream", it's actually ice milk, but it's very creamy ice milk. The texture is silky and it has a nice vanilla flavor. The sweetness level is just about right. The mochi shell tends to peel off the ice cream pretty fast, but it makes for a nice chewy complement once the ice cream has melted in your mouth. One of the selling points of this is that the mochi stays soft even when frozen, and it definitely does. The texture is all you could hope for and it's not hard to chew. This is about as close to a non-threatening mochi (as in you're unlikely to choke to death on it) as you can get. The flavor of the rice cake itself is mild and fresh.

I was very pleased with this. Lotte did a good job of working the two components such that they are sweet, fresh, flavorful and tasty. If you like mochi, I'd definitely recommend giving them a try.

If you'd like to download a desktop picture of some cute bunnies or a cheesecake picture of a Japanese girl that are released to promote this ice cream, there's a page with a few items on it here.

Rincle Petit Cone Ice

If the the Keebler elves were to buy a box of ice cream cones to keep around in their freezers for those days when they had a hankering for ice cream (though really, with all of those Keebler cookies, they don't need more sweets), Rincle cones would certainly fit the bill. I wonder if Glico designed these for diet-conscious adults or small children whose parents grudgingly give them sweet summer treats. Since this is classified as a "family pack" on Glico's site, I'm guessing it is for kids. One thing is for sure, at about about 10 cm (4") in length and 3 cm (1.2") in diameter, they aren't for those with big appetites.

I found these mini cones at a local supermarket and was drawn to the fact that each flavor has 50 calories or less per cone. I knew even before I opened up the box that they were going to be small. The only question was going to be how small. Note that they have been explicitly designed to be fancy-looking and to mimic the sort of ornate cone you might get at some tony ice cream parlor. The appearance of the cones was definitely a priority when Glico designed them as it is mentioned in their PR for this product.

The flavors included are strawberry, mango and double chocolate and vanilla, and double chocolate and cookie. There are 16 cones, 4 of each flavor, in one box and they cost about 200 yen (about $2), depending on whether or not you can find them on sale. Each cone is wrapped in a paper wrapper which is a little hard to remove despite a handy tab. This is because the paper is lined with plastic which stretches. When you pull on the tab, the paper only pulls off around the center and you're stuck trying to open the top. I'm guessing they lined the paper with plastic to try and stop the cones from getting stale or soggy. Frankly, this did not work. When I first bought this box, the cones were moderately crispy, but by the time I got through with half of them, they were on the softer side.

The ice milk is creamy and has a very satisfying texture. The cones, likewise, are not bad, though they don't have much in the way of flavor. They're shaped like waffle cones, but are actually fairly good quality cake cones. Each cone probably has between 2 and 3 tablespoons of ice milk in it. There's so little ice milk at the top of the cone that you'd be hard-pressed to just lick it. If you're lucky, the small blob won't dislodge on the first lick, but really the best you can hope for is to not gobble the ice milk on top in one bite.

Here are my impressions of each flavor:

mango:


The mango portion of this is really just a few little decorative dabs at the top. The rest is good, creamy and satisfyingly sweet vanilla. If you want a strong mango experience, you'll want to give this a pass, but it's certainly quite good as a vanilla cone. This cone was 40 calories.

double chocolate with cookie:


The chocolate portion is pretty much confined to the dabs on top. I couldn't detect the cookie part much at all, though it does add a grainy textural component. You can taste the chocolate a bit, but it's pretty weak. The cone has a bit of chocolate in it as well, but it's so subdued that it barely registered. At 48 calories, this cone is the most fattening of the bunch. It's also the sweetest and my least favorite.

strawberry:


I have to be honest and say that I'm not a fan of strawberry ice cream, but this was good. The strawberry flavor wasn't too intense or fake. My husband, who does like strawberry ice cream, enjoyed this quite a lot. It's also the low calorie winner of the bunch at 38 calories.

vanilla & double chocolate:


This one had the same cone as the cookie one, and the highest amount of chocolate. The top is a nice bittersweet crispy bit and the chocolate ice cream is flavorful and nicely sweet. It was my favorite of the bunch, but there are really no losers. It is 43 calories. Incidentally, I have no idea why this is called "vanilla & double chocolate" since there is nothing vanilla in it. It was also labeled as the "cookie" cone. I think someone just made mistakes on the labels and swapped them in some cases.

Depending on what kind of eater you are and how fussy you are about ice cream rather than ice milk, this is either a wonderful package of portion-controlled ice cream cones, or too little on the portion front. For me, this was great because I tend to want something sweet after a meal, but hate the idea of having a full dessert to satisfy that craving. Since the quality of the ice milk is so good and the sweetness level just about perfect, I was really pleased with these despite the tiny amounts. I'd recommend these for people who occasionally want a few spoonfuls of ice cream, but not for those who aren't satisfied with anything less than a full scoop when they get an ice cream (or in this case, ice milk) craving.

I should also note that the last two cones sat in my freezer for over a month before I got to them and there was quality degradation. The ice cream seemed to have seen a little crystallization from the freezer door being opened and closed and the cones got quite soft. I'd recommend finishing them off quickly, or putting them near the back of the freezer in a freezer quality Ziploc bag to protect them from temperature fluctuations and going stale. Clearly, the paper wrappers aren't going to do enough to keep air out of them.

Morinaga Jumbo Monaka

When I was a child, my mother used to buy big boxes of what were called "cake cones". Among ice cream cones, the "cake cone" was the trailer trash of the lot. Sugar cones and waffle cones were flavor and textural delights to go along with your ice cream. They enhanced the experience. The cake cone was like edible foam packing. It was mainly there to hold your ice cream while you licked it, not to make the experience greatly tastier.

My guess is that my mother bought those cones because, as kids, we really weren't discriminating about what we ate. After all, we thought Kraft macaroni and cheese was the bee's knees of dinner cuisine. If there was ice cream, that was good enough for us. The cake cones were a way of being able to make sure not one drop was lost. I'm guessing she also liked the fact that they didn't tend to drip out the bottom like ice cream in a sugar cone. Cake cones probably saved her from having to fight shirt stains, at least on occasion.


The Japanese have taken the notion of a cake cone and turned it into a sort of ice cream sandwich. Instead of flanking the ice cream with a cookie or slab of waffle, they've imprisoned it in a thin layer of cake cone material. Ice cream sandwiches made in this manner are called "monaka". Since I was never a great fan of the cake cone to begin with, and this is adding more cone to the equation, I haven't really sampled many monaka since coming to Japan.

Incidentally, monaka originally and are still made as sweetened beans or other fillings sandwiched between two "wafers". The fillings are made of varied substances as are the shells. My guess is that the quality of traditional monaka shells is quite a bit higher than the modified cake cone substance used for ice cream sandwiches.


I saw this Morinaga Jumbo Monaka in a 99 yen shop. I found it the best of a poor lot of ice cream on offer and I was in the mood for something different. I keep saying "ice cream", but this is actually ice milk. Many ice cream monaka just have plain vanilla ice cream in them, but this one has a chocolate inner coating and a plain of crispy chocolate running through the center.

This bar was introduced by Morinaga in 1972, but they added the chocolate (as a sauce) to the middle in 1980 and named it a "Deluxe" bar. It didn't grow up to be a "Jumbo" until 1996 when they made the center chocolate a thin, crispy wafer-thin piece of candy. The entire bar is 315 calories, and though you could easily eat it at once, it's pretty big and I ate only one-third of it in one sitting.

I allowed this bar to sit out for about 5 minutes before eating it because I think ice cream isn't as good when it's really hard. You can't really sense the creaminess of it unless it's softened up a bit. For ice milk, this was quite nice. It felt rich and fatty and had good flavor and sweetness balance. The first bites off the ends aren't as good as interior bites because there's too much of the monaka wafer and very little chocolate flavor. Once you get past the edges, it's better as the center chocolate sheet has a deeper, slightly bitter sweet chocolate taste and you get more ice cream and less cake cone.

I liked this quite a lot, though I'm still not going to be filling the freezer with monaka bars any time soon. I'd definitely get this again if I were in the right mood. The ice milk and chocolate can't be beat, and the monaka wafer adds some softly crunchy textural elements. It's also a lot easier to eat it in stages because of the way in which the little squares allow you to visually divide the bar into portions.

Kinako Mochi Ice Milk Bar

Kinako mochi, along with yuzu, is quite the fad these days. This suits me just fine as it's generally a good combination. The outside of this ice milk bar's package shows you a cutaway of the bar with the mochi generously winking at you from inside. Far be it from me to ignore the advances of a flirtatious frozen treat.


The manufacturer is "Marunaga", which sounds like a name intentionally meant to sound like monster confectioner Morinaga, but I am almost certainly wrong about any attempt to sucker people into thinking this is made by a company that has more brand name recognition because the Marunaga has been around since 1962. It makes a variety of ice cream products, many of which are made with traditional Japanese ingredients like red beans (anko), chestnuts (marron), and green tea (matcha). I've never noticed their products before, but I can't say that I've scrutinized the ice cream aisle intently. Their "flagship" products are manju frozen dairy products. "Frozen dairy products" means that they make ice milk rather than ice cream.


The package says that the outside is "chocolate coating", but it has no actual chocolate flavor unless it's white chocolate. The bar smells noticeably, but not too strongly of toasted soy flour (kinako). The first bite is pleasantly sweet and tastes of kinako. The mochi portion is visible after the first bite, but it's too close to the center to taste or detect at first.


A few bites in, you experience the mochi, which has little flavor, but is pleasantly soft and slightly chewy. Mochi can be too gummy or chewy and I imagine it has to be specially formulated to keep it soft and pleasant when it's frozen. In fact, if anything, this is borderline at being too slimy and resembling a certain bodily fluid, but it luckily doesn't jump over the line. Nobody wants to feel like they're consuming a mucous-filled ice milk bar, after all.

The sweetness level is just right on this and the kinako flavor isn't too overpowering. The ice milk itself is a weak point though. It has little flavor of its own, but that's not a problem since the other flavors are more interesting and they don't need competition. The main thing is that the ice milk suffers from some crystallizing and has the texture of cheap dairy products. You can see crystals in the detailed shots above if you look carefully.

I liked this, and I'd seriously consider buying it again, but I'd have to be in a particular mood. This has a lot of calories (260) and portion control is difficult as it's harder to wrap the remainder of an ice milk bar up and place it in the freezer for later without making a mess or risking freezer burn. Though this was enjoyable, if I were going for something cold and creamy, I'd be more likely to opt for Morinaga's vanilla ice cream sandwich because it's real ice cream, has fewer calories and is easier to put away part of for future consumption. However, the flavor of this bar is more interesting than the mundane vanilla ice cream sandwich.

This was also reviewed on the Daily Yamazaki.