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.

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.