Great Ice Cream in Japan

The hot season is finally here.

People can't get enough of ice cream in the summer.

It's cool and sweet, and it relieves the uncomfortable heat of summer.

In the USA we have so many ice creams. Do you think any of them are sweet and tasty?　Or do you have a favorite ice cream?

I love Haagen-Dazs ice cream. However, it's expensive and I rarely get a chance to eat it.

I usually buy the following brands of ice cream. Those are very good enough for me.

Blue Bunny, Breyer's, Edy's and Turkey Hill, Friendly's, Baskin-Robbins, Dairy Queen, etc...

Which brand of ice cream do you like? You might say, no, it's not the brand, it's the type of flavor that determines it. I agree with you.

I personally like vanilla ice cream. Besides that, I like flavors like caramel, coffee, and mint. In addition, ice cream with fruit juice is also a favorite of mine. Strawberries, blueberries, oranges and pineapple work well when it's hot.

My wife is a big fan of peanut butter flavored ice cream.

Our kids welcome chocolate-type ice cream. Especially the double dunker, which drives them crazy.

By the way, what kind of ice cream do the Japanese eat?

What do you think is different in Japan compared to the US?

Allow me to share with you some of my ice cream preferences in Japan.

The Great Popular Ice Creams in Japan

1 Häagen-Dazs Vanilla

This is amazing. American ice cream is at the top of the list. Häagen-Dazs is loved all over the world. The Japanese don't really appreciate foods that are too sweet. But Häagen-Dazs' vanilla flavor is just the right sweetness for the Japanese. It's a simple but deep taste.

I have no objection to it at all.

But what's surprising is that the next most popular Haagen-Dazs ice cream is the green tea flavored one. Have you ever tasted green tea?　Many people in the United States are familiar with green tea. Matcha is green tea with sugar added to it. But did you know it exists in Häagen-Dazs?　It's a perfect harmony of milk and matcha. You should look for it and be sure to eat it.

2 YUKIMI DAIFUKU

This is an original Japanese product. It's very unique and a big hit that every Japanese person knows. It's a vanilla ice cream wrapped in a soft rice cake.

Originally, DAIFUKU is a sweet red bean cake wrapped in a rice cake. YUKIMI DAIFUKU was created in Japan more than 300 years ago. It means "rice cake". Ice cream and rice cakes have been combined into an unprecedented food product. It tastes like a miracle!

3 MONA-OW

This ice cream is also not available in the US, unfortunately. It uses an ingredient that is somewhere between a wafer and a waffle. It's adapted from an old Japanese pastry called MONAKA. In essence, it's vanilla ice cream wrapped in a very thin waffle. It has a great texture when you bite into it with your teeth, and the process of melting in your mouth, along with the ice cream, is what makes it so special. It feels so wonderful. It's hard to explain. I can only tell you to eat it when you come to Japan. Frankly it's delicious. There is also an ice cream similar to this one. It's the same thing, but with more chocolate inside. This is also very popular.

4 AZUKI-BAR

This translates into English as "Just Frozen Sweet Red Bean with Stick"".

It's a special process that adds milk, freezes the red bean and converts it into a popsicle. 

It is one of the most popular of the many hard popsicles. It's one of the all-time best ice cream candies, happily eaten by children and old people alike.

5 GariGari-Kun

This is another popsicle bar. They are very popular, especially with children. It has a very refreshing soda flavor with artificial blue color. It's refreshing to take a bite of this frozen popsicle bar. The summer heat is instantly blown away.

These are just a few of the ice creams and popsicles that Japan has to offer.

I’ll tell you just a few more examples.

Ice-No-Mi

These are little balls of Gelato that go in your mouth. You picture frozen popsicle balls. They contain fruit juice inside them. Grapes, peaches, strawberries, pears, grapefruit, etc. are all real fruit. Their surfaces are coated with frozen popsicles and their interiors are soft fruit juices. Gelato. It's a very well contrived little ice cream ball. It comes in a cold storage pouch with twelve pieces each. It's like frozen fruit.

Black Chocolate Bar Ice

The package and the contents of this one look just like a regular chocolate bar, but in fact, it's an ice candy chocolate. It tastes so good and cold with real chocolate flavor.

When the weather gets hotter, ice cream is what I want to eat every day.

Now, do you have an ice cream that you are proud to introduce to us?