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.

Lotte Specialite Rum Cake Chocolates

My husband often comes home with far more interesting items than I do, and he found this at a Lawson's convenience store near his workplace in Shinjuku. It's not interesting because it's a rum cake chocolate as there are many booze-flavored candies released in Japan (particularly around Valentine's Day). The thing that makes it unique is the association between Lotte and the cake maker Cozy Corner.

Cozy Corner is a chain that sells various attractive looking and fairly nice tasting cakes. I enjoy their mont blanc and creme brulee (when they offer it, which isn't all the time). The cakes are rather expensive though, so I only have one once in a blue moon. The little red circle on the front of the box, by the way, is where the Cozy Corner connection is made. That red logo with a bow is part of their design.


This bar is pretty big at 69 grams (2.4 oz.), and cost 198 yen ($2.22). This smells like rum and sweetness. The texture is a soft-ish chocolate shell with a softer center. My picture was taken just after the bar came out of the refrigerator so it looks more solid than it really is. Once it reached room temperature, the center became somewhat creamy. The balance of rum to chocolate is actually pretty good. It's mildly sweet and quite smooth, though not as smooth as Dars chocolates. There are 12 large squares and each is 34 calories. Two squares did me just fine.

I'm not really a great fan of booze-infused candy, but this was actually quite nice. For my tastes, I wish that the chocolate flavor had been a little more pronounced, but I leaned more toward a happy rating than indifferent because I enjoyed this even though it was outside of my normal range of tastes. I don't think the "cake" part of it comes through at all, but this is a fine rum chocolate.