Glico Sugar Rich Chou Ice (product announcement)

This product's name caught my eye because it is called "sugar rich". I can't imagine, in a day and age when sugar is considered in the same toxic posse as cocaine and heroin, that we would ever see a product promoting itself with such a name in the U.S. It would be like selling meat as being "fat-rich". Nobody wants that.

The cornerstones of its appeal are not necessarily in sugar, however. It is promoted for its white glaze and cookie crunch. I'm sure that both are full of sugar, though it should be noted that this is not ice cream despite the appearance. It's what the Japanese call "lacto ice" or ice milk. So, all of the sugar is included, but less fat.

This went on sale yesterday (September 23) and retails for 126 yen (about $1.25). It has only 196 calories, but I'm sure it's not especially big since it is stated as being 80 ml. Glico's press release said that the target audience is women in their 20's and 30's who are seeking luxury. I'm guessing the point about that which is not included is that they must bee looking for it on a budget as they aren't paying for higher quality frozen confection.

Lotte Coolish Vanilla

If the astronauts could eat something akin to "real" ice cream, they'd be eating "Coolish". The concept is ice milk that you squeeze up and eat out of a tube, because we like our ice cream eating experiences to resemble things like dispensing toothpaste or hemorrhoid cream. The package is a plastic-coated foil packet which houses some ice milk. You can't eat it immediately out of the freezer, but rather have to let it sit for awhile or warm it with your hands. It won't come out through the tube at the top unless it has thawed a bit.

The ice milk itself has little bits of ice crystals in it and has a texture which is more akin to kakigori with cream or ice cream on it than pure ice milk or ice cream. Kakigori is Japanese shaved ice, which is quite popular in summer and is sold in various presentations. The ice crystals add a unique textural dimension, and I liked it, but some may find it distracting.

Yes, that's a very attractive delivery system. 

The taste is of strong vanilla and it's quite sweet. It's actually quite delicious, though I doubt that it is coming from real vanilla beans. It's also only 152 calories, which is on the lower side for ice milk. I'm guessing this has to do with the way it is cut with ice crystals. This is a low-end product and sells for 100 yen (about $1.24) for a 140-ml. portion (around a 3/4 cup serving). Real ice cream in Japan tends to cost 3 times as much.

The only problem that I had with this was that it gets softer and softer at the end and unless you're sure to have the tube right in your mouth every moment you're squeezing the packet, it'll surprise you and squirt out on your shirt or pants. Well, that's what it did to me. Also, frankly, suckling on the tube feels a bit weird. I think this is supposed to be similar to a lot of sports drinks in Japan in terms of the experience of consuming it. If you're walking around on a hot day (something that happens a lot right now), this is probably a convenient way to enjoy a very cold snack, but it still makes me feel like I'm still on the bottle. That being said, I'd buy this again as long as I could consume it at home.

Lawson VL Chocolate Ice Milk Parfait

Every time I buy an ice cream or ice milk product, I review it on this blog. That should give you some idea of how infrequently I consume such products. I love them, but the caloric density is so high that I have to exercise caution. When I do want them though, I also find that many of the offerings in Japan don't quite do it for me. It's not that the quality isn't good, but rather that I have a particular craving for certain types of ice cream experiences when I'm ready to dive into some creamy, cold, fatty goodness.

One of the things I crave on a regular basis is a chocolate sundae like I occasionally had back home. I mean the sort of thing which comes with fudge sauce, whipped cream and nuts. Foolishly, at the times when I desire this, I'll try some Japanese concoction and feel incredibly disappointed. Part of the reason for this is that I'm not exactly seeking out the best quality sundaes at such times and will grab whatever has verisimilitude that is at hand. This is how I came to purchase this 100-yen (~$1.24) ice milk chocolate parfait.

I knew this wasn't going to be great, but I was at least hoping for something akin to soft serve ice cream with Hershey's syrup on it. I set the bar extremely low, but no matter how close to the ground I put it, this parfait was going to fail and trip over it. This tasted like frozen dairy nothingness. The chocolate sauce had very little in the way of chocolate taste and the ice milk was like sweetened reconstituted powdered milk mixed with flavorless gelatin to give it thickness. In my haze of sundae lust, I doused it with some Hershey's syrup we had on hand to try and give it something, but even that was not enough to make it worthwhile.

This was very disappointing, even to someone who didn't expect much at all. The only "good" thing is that the volume is fairly high (260 ml.) for only 176 calories and, of course, it's cheap, but the old axiom about getting what you pay for has never been truer. I've got to stop looking for sundae substitutes in Japan.

Hazelnut Chocolate Daifuku

Having one good experience with a Japanese snack will often lead me to become more adventurous with all snacks made in the same general mold. The experience I had with Lotte's Yukimi Daifuku ice cream, tiny balls of creamy vanilla goodness wrapped in soft stretchy mochi (pounded rice cake). If vanilla ice cream was good, hazelnut chocolate had at least the promise of being better.

This product is made by one of the "faceless" little companies that help fill the shelves and cases of 100 yen shops and "konbini" (convenience stores).  The company is Daiichi Syokuhin and makes a lot of low quality ice milk products, including a vanilla bar that I reviewed unfavorably before and a chocolate one that I liked. I've seen a lot of their products and pondered trying them just because they look pretty good, but I always know deep down that the chances that they're going to be worth the added fat cell size is unlikely.

I found this package of two (60 ml.) balls of ice  milk at Lawson 100 for 100 yen ($1.20). I did so fully aware that ice milk was unlikely to live up to ice cream, but I have had some pretty good experiences in Japan with ice milk. I'm sorry to say that this wasn't one of them. The texture was not very fine and you could detect some of the ice crystal structure that comes from too much milk and not enough fat (or not enough blending).

This was less of a problem then the fact that the chocolate flavor was extremely weak and the hazelnut completely undetectable. Mainly, there was a bit of a coconut flavor, some sweetness, and coldness and texture. The mochi covering was nicely sweet and stretchy, but so thin as to lend little more than a flexible wrapper for the ball of ice milk.

Each serving of this is only 87 calories, and certainly this offered the potential for a good portion-controlled bit of ice milk, but it just wasn't that good. It wasn't bad at all, mind you. It really needed either stronger flavors or better texture (or both) to make it a winner. I ate half and my husband ate the other, but neither of us would have it again.

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.

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.

Morinaga Funwari Chocola

 I found this at my local Lawson 100 shop for 100 yen. The bar caught my attention because of its somewhat low calorie count, only 165 calories for a 72  ml. sandwich, and the fact that it is an ice cream sandwich. 

When I cut open the plastic packaging on this ice milk sandwich, I was greeted with the greatest chocolate smell. I don't think I've ever had that sort of olfactory experience with a cheap frozen confection before. The cookie part is very soft and dusted with a powdered sugar type of substance, but it isn't as sweet. You can taste this sweetness when you bite into the soft, cake-like sandwich. The way in which the texture of the ice milk and cake-like exterior come together reminds me of the classic combination of ice cream and cake (only without the fork).

The flavor of this really blew me away. The chocolate is much deeper in flavor than most ice milk. It carries just the slightest bittersweet notes. It's not enough to put you off if you dislike darker chocolate, but it is enough to enhance the intensity of the chocolate taste. Like much of the ice milk I have had in Japan, this is very creamy and feels quite similar to real ice cream. The ingredients for this include almond oil, "fresh chocolate" (very soft chocolate which is like ganache or a truffle), and hazelnut paste. I believe the "fresh chocolate" (nama chocolate or 生チョコレート in Japanese) is the small drops of darker filling the middle of the bar which you can see in the cutaway picture. These are all expensive and unusual additions to this type of product and I believe they contribute to the overall quality of the flavor in a highly favorable manner. 

For the low price, the good flavor, and the lovely textural combination, I wholeheartedly recommend giving this a try if you can locate it. I had half of the bar at a time to really allow the brilliance of the deep flavor to strike me anew twice. I suggest savoring every bite of this lovely chocolate treat, slowly, and with undivided attention.

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.