Nestlé Japan is opening a new branch of KitKat Chocolatory inside Shibuya’s new shopping mall Miyashita Park on August 4, 2020.

KitKat Chocolatory is a direct-to-consumer chain, serving premium, handcrafted KitKats made with top quality ingredients and production methods under full direction by Takagi Yasumasa―the owner and chef of LE PATISSIER TAKAGI. Its product line-up features a range perfect as gifts to friends, family and co-workers, or as a treat to yourself.

Japan is home to eight KitKat Chocolatory branches. The new Miyashita Park Shibuya branch will open as the fourth in Tokyo, as well as the first where you can create your own KitKat products.

My KITKAT: ¥2,000 (Before Tax)

“My KITKAT” comes as the world’s first KitKat service where consumers can create their own original chocolate bars.

KitKat Waffle: ¥1,000 (Before Tax)

KitKat Chocolatory Sublime Soft Cream: ¥630 (Before Tax)

KitKat Chocolatory Miyashita Park Shibuya will also sell a variety of unique and exclusive KitKat desserts, like luxurious soft serve ice cream topped with couverture chocolate. It will also offer a cafe menu created by Nespresso, where customers can pair Chocolatory desserts with seasonal coffee menus, and more.

Shibuya-esque wall art will decorate the interior of the shop, making for plenty of photo opportunities.

Together with soy sauce and miso, mirin is a fundamental condiment in the Japanese kitchen and for many recipes for Japanese food. It’s a sweet rice wine that has lower alcohol content and higher sugar content when compared to sake, adding a sweet flavour to dishes.

Today, we’re taking a look at a recipe that uses “Mikawa Mirin,” a brand of mirin made from high quality rice, to make carrot and cream cheese chawanmushi. Chawanmushi is a savoury egg custard dessert eaten in Japan.

Carrot & Cream Cheese Chawanmushi

Chawanmushi is made using mirin and has a smooth texture to it as well as a subtly sweet flavour. It’s the perfect accompaniment to a hot summer’s day.

Ingredients (Serves 1)

●Chawanmushi
60g carrots
240ml dashi
20ml soy sauce
120ml Mikawa Mirin
8g sugar
18g cream cheese
1 egg

●Okra-an
Okra
30ml dashi
0.5g salt
3ml Mikawa Mirin

Method

We will start by making the chawanmushi.

1. Slice the carrots and boil them until they become soft.

2. Add the soy sauce, sugar, and lots of mirin and cook through the dashi.

3. Cook for approximately 20 minutes on a medium heat, then cool with ice. Add the cooled carrots, cream cheese, and 20ml of the dashi into a blender and bend.

4. Add the egg to the mix and steam the mix for 12 minutes on a medium heat.

While the chawanmushi is cooling, we’ll make the okra-an.

5. Mix together the okra-an dashi, mirin, and salt together. Add watered potato starch and thinly sliced okra. Leave to cool in the refrigerator.

6. Add the okra-an to the cooled chawanmushi and tuck into your cute two-layered dessert.

Carrot & Cream Cheese Chawanmushi

The dessert is an enjoyable mix of the sticky texture from the okra-an and smooth chawanmushi. It’s great to have not only at lunch or dinner, but at home parties with friends too.

–How’s the taste?

Misa Kimura: “It works really well with the mirin. The chawanmushi is like a sweet treat. It’s super easy to make too, so I think I’ll be making it at home!”

Mirin is indispensable to any Japanese cupboard and can be used in many ways, whether it be a classic Japanese dish or a dessert like this one.

Mikawa Mirin 700ml: ¥1,122 (Tax Included)

This authentic brand of mirin is made using a traditional method of Japanese brewing which blends in the delicious taste of rice. It’s so delicious that you just want to drink the whole bottle. A high quality mirin, it has a distinct sweetness, colour, and texture. It has a rich flavour, and the taste of the rice elevates the flavours of its ingredients.

Mikawa Mirin Official Website: http://www.mikawamirin.jp/
Official Online Store: http://mikawamirin.jp/product/product_step1.php?m=n
Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikawamirin

Recipe

This recipe was conceived by ITEMAE, a famous restaurant serving Japanese cuisine that is listed in the Michelin Guide.

Model: Misa Kimura
Photographer: Haruka Yamamoto

Japanese food and confectionery company Bijuu is opening a new restaurant called Tsurigitsune inside Osaka International Airport’s North Terminal on August 5, 2020. The restaurant will specialise in inari sushi, a type of sushi packed into pouches of deep-fried tofu.

Bijuu is known for producing and selling such products as Kyoto’s famous coarse sweet red bean paste-filled yatsuhashi otabe crackers.

Tsurigitsune will serve “Kyo Dashi Oinari,” a type of inari sushi made with fried tofu Saga Tofu Morioka—a long-standing tofu shop in Sagano, Kyoto—soaked in lots of sumptuous Kyoto-style dashi. The restaurant will also serve a special type of sweet otabe cracker which cannot be eaten anywhere else.

Kyo Dashi Oinari (Includes 15) | ¥3,240 (Tax Included)

The dashi that the Kyo Dashi Oinari are soaked in take up all the delicious flavour of kombu, sababushi smoked mackerel, iwashibushi pilchard, and katsuobushi dried bonito, all of which serve to add that authentic Kyoto flavour.

Tanto Otabeyasu | ¥930 (Tax Included) *Served 6:30-10:00

As well as Kyo Dashi Oinari, Tsurigitsune’s menu includes a line-up of dishes that celebrate the flavour of dashi, including soba, dashimaki tamago omelette, and more.

If you’re travelling to Osaka, why not get an authentic Kyoto experience too by dining at Tsurigitsune?

Eight shops inside Laforet Harajuku are participating in the shopping mall’s midsummer takeout dessert event which is taking place from August 1 to 31. This includes the new milk dessert shop “MILK MILK MILK” which opened as the first branch in Japan on July 17 this year. Desserts and merchandise of Sanrio’s popular character Cinnamoroll, who won this year’s 2020 Sanrio Character Ranking, will also be sold.

café de paris | Floor B1F

Many Many Fruits Sandwich: Mango ¥626 / Green Grape ¥561 (Tax Included)　*Takeout only

Fresh fruit is packed onto these adorable looking sweet sandwiches.

CAFE CREPE | Floor 1F

Honey Summer Orange: ¥730 (Tax Included)　*Takeout only

Another cute summer dessert finished with swirls of fresh cream, fresh orange, and a round dollop of ginger ice cream.

MILK MILK MILK! | Floor 2F

Milk Bottle Smoothie: ¥880 (Tax Included)　*Takeout and have-in

Served in a cute milk bottle, what better way to cool down than with a cool strawberry smoothie?

Cinnamoroll Milk Pudding: ¥1,078 (Tax Included)　*Takeout and have-in

Cinnamoroll Sky Beaker Parfait: ¥1,048 (Tax Included)　*Have-in only

There are two tasty Cinnamoroll desserts to choose from, including the milk pudding made with Hokkaido milk and a parfait with a gradient or jelly and chocolate mint ice cream, topped with mint, and served in a beaker.

© 2001,2020 SANRIO.,CO.LTD. APPROVAL NO.S610695

The rainy season in Japan, known as Tsuyu, is finally coming to a close, which means the real summer is right around the corner. And what better way to stay cool in Japan during the summertime than with a glass of coo, refreshing cream soda?

We’ve compiled a list of 4 must-try cream sodas in Kyoto recommended by Tiara on Instagram, who posts photos on her Instagram of drinks and desserts she tries around the Kanto region of Japan, and who has kindly provided us with photos on this occasion too.

and C Kyoto | Kita-ku

Yellow Cream Soda / White Cream Soda / Red Cream Soda / Blue Cream Soda

and C Kyoto is a stylish bar, cafe, and second hand clothes store located right by Hirano Shrine. They serve four different colours of their cream soda which look super cute when lined up in a row.

and C Kyoto
Address: 30 Hirano Kamihatchōyanagichō, Kita-ku, Kyoto
Opening Hours: 12:00-23:00
Closed: Tuesdays
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andc102/

BABBI GELATERIA KYOTO | Gion Shijo

Mango Passion / Classic Blue / Amaou Strawberry

BABBI GELATERIA KYOTO is located along the Kamo River and is famous for its gelato. They also sell some super refreshing cream sodas topped with their tasty gelato.

BABBI GELATERIA KYOTO
Address: 134 Saitocho, Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto
Opening Hours: 13:00-20:00 (Temporary hours due to COVID-19)
TEL: 075-585-5200
Official Website: http://www.babbi.co.jp/showcase/gelateria-kyoto/

Kissa Zou | Imadegawa

Pudding a la Mode / Lemon Squash & Elephant Cookie

This cute cream soda comes with an elephant-shaped cookie. The custard pudding has a rich eggy flavour.

Kissa Zou
Address: 440-3 Santeichō, Kamigyō-ku, Kyoto
Opening Hours: 10:00-18:00 (Last Orders 17:00)
No Fixed Holidays
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kissa_zou/

Bread, Espresso & Arashiyama Garden | Arashiyama

Cherry Blossom Cream Soda

This old cafe is renovated from an old family estate which was built at the end of the Edo Period and is designated as a cultural property of Kyoto. This beautiful cafe coincides with the gardens and has gorgeous thatched roofing.

Bread, Espresso & Arashiyama Garden
Address: 45-15 Sagatenryuji Susukinobabacho, Ukyo Ward, Kyoto
Opening Hours: 10:00-18:00 (Last Orders 17:00)
TEL 075-432-7940
Official Website: https://bread-espresso.jp

Tiara has lots of other delicious dessert recommendations over on her Instagram, so be sure to follow her if you’re travelling in the Kansai region and are in need of a sweet treat.

Original Text & Photo: ＠happy_pinkrose_tiara

Translation: Joshua Kitosi-Isanga

*The information about the items on this list are correct at the time of publishing. For the latest information, please visit each cafe’s official websites and social media pages.

Character-inspired Japanese confectionery series Tabemas has revealed that its next batch of sweet treats are Dragon Ball Super inspired. The sweets were released at FamilyMart convenience stores in Japan on July 28, 2020.

‘Tabemas’ is an abbreviation of the Japanese words taberareru masukotto, meaning ‘mascots that you can eat.’ It is a Japanese confectionery series that combines well-known characters and Japanese sweets made from ingredients like red bean paste, sugar and rice flour. The sweets are also made with a dough called “nerikiri” which is used in making traditional Japanese wagashi sweets.

Tabemas Dragon Ball Super: ¥369 Before Tax | 1 set of 2

The confection designs include the iconic Dragon Balls from the series up to Seven-Stars, as well as Shenron.

Shenron is matcha-flavoured. Using nerikiri dough, Tabemas has brought the dragon god to life with his iconic red gaze, whiskers, and tail. Each of the seven Dragon Balls are filled with custard cream. One set of these confections comes with both Shenreon and one of the Dragon Balls, so fans can enjoy both flavours.

As well as all of the seven Dragon Balls, there are two secrets ones too. What exactly they are requires a trip to FamilyMart.

©Bird Studio/Shueisha・Fuji TV・Toei Animation

Japan’s popular confectionery souvenir shop Tokyo Banana is collaborating with Disney for one week from July 29 to August 7 at the Hankyu Umeda branch of Tokyo Banana in Osaka.

Officially named the “Disney SWEETS COLLECTION by Tokyo Banana,” the line-up brings together the iconic Disney characters and centres them around the company’s brand concept which is to bring happiness to all who see and taste their products.

Mickey Mouse Pancake Sandwich: ¥1,080 for 4 / ¥1,382 for 6 (Tax Inclusive)

A box of “Mickey Mouse Pancake Sandwiches” contains baked, deliciously fluffy treats filled with soft cream. They come in two shapes: Mickey’s face and the iconic Tokyo Banana. The Mickey ones contain caramel cream and roasted almonds while the Tokyo Banana designs are filled with banana milk cream and chocolate chips.

Mickey Mouse Chocolate Sandwich: ¥1,080 for 12 / ¥2,160 for 24

The “Mickey Mouse Chocolate Sandwich” are crunchy cat tongue biscuits which have Tokyo Banana’s distinct milky flavour. They are made to be like a delicious banana milkshake you can eat and contain rich chocolate.

 © Disney

Cafe Comme Ca has announced that its second “Peach Blossom Spring Story” fair will run at several branches (see below) from August 1, 2020 to August 26, 2020. Sweet-tooths and peach lovers won’t be able to resist this fruity dessert line-up, including a cake made using a type of peach known as the “Miss Peach” from Fukushima Prefecture.

Cafe Comme Ca is a chain of cafes in Japan known for its artistic cakes which are made using fresh and specially selected fruits from across Japan.

Peach & Raspberry Cream Shortcake: Single Slice ¥1,100 (¥1,200 at the Ginza Branch) *Tax inclusive

An immaculate combination of fresh, sweet peaches and fluffy sponge. Enjoy together with the sweet and sour kick from the raspberry cream.

Miss Peach Cake: Single Slice ¥1,100 (¥1,400 at the Ginza Branch) *Tax inclusive

Made with rich, sweet Miss Peach peaches from Fukushima Prefecture, this cake has a fromage blanc base.

*The following branches will serve with white peaches from Okayama instead: Kyoto, Keihan City Mall, Sanyo Department Store, Fukuya Hatchobori, Fukuya Hiroshima Station, MITSUKOSHI Matsuyama, Fukuoka VIORO, and Izutsuya Kokura. Price: Single Slice ¥1,200.

Peach & Grape Cake: Single Slice ¥900 (Tax Included)

Laced with fresh peach juice and decorated beautifully with super sweet grapes. The mascarpone base is a match made in heaven.

*The Ginza branch will use peaches and grapes from Nagano Prefecture. Price: Single Slice ¥1,100.

Peach & Mango Cake: Single Slice ¥990 (Tax Included)

A sweet and fruity combination of peaches and soft mango with a cheese cream base.

*The Ginza branch will use peaches from Nagano Prefecture and mangoes from Mexico. Price: Single Slice ¥1,100.

The new “Flower Miffy Juice Garden” opened as a permanent addition to Flower Miffy Asakusa on July 21, 2020. Flower Miffy is a Miffy-themed flower and merchandise shop.

Colourful Jelly Soda – Gerbera/Tulip/Sunflower/Lavender: ¥580 Each (Before Tax)

Four new Miffy drinks are being served for the opening of Flower Miffy Juice Garden. Each is a soda beverage is filled with colourful jelly, elderflower syrup made from real flowers, and a soft, bouncy kind of jelly. Each drink itself looks like a colourful bouquet.

Miffy Cream Soda: ¥680 (Before Tax)

Flower Miffy Juice Garden will also introduce the “Miffy Cream Soda” on Saturday August 1 which is a colourful jelly soda topped with ice cream, a Miffy wafer, and flower-shaped chocolate.

Lemonade: ¥480 (Before Tax)

Apple Juice: ¥480 (Before Tax)

Other available drinks include sweet and sour lemonade made using lemons grown in the Seto Inland Sea, 100% apple juice, and other cute delights.

McDonald’s Japan will release their new “Mango Creamy Frappe” and “Muscat Creamy Frappe” at McCafé by Barista branches on July 22, 2020.

Mango Creamy Frappe: Regular ¥470 / Large ¥540

The Mango Creamy Frappe is made with Alphonso mangoes, which is considered by some at the king of mangoes. The beverage is a combination of McDonald’s regular “Mango Smoothie” topped with whipped cream for a sweet and tropical flavour explosion.

Muscat Creamy Frappe: Regular ¥470 / Large ¥540

The new whipped cream-topped Muscat Creamy Frappe uses fresh and fruity muscat grapes for a sweet and sour kick.

gmgm released a new collection of “Cold Flower Doughnuts” on July 17 for the summer season which you need to scoop up to eat.

gmgm is a cosy cafe and doughnut shop in Koenji, Tokyo which serves beautiful doughnuts topped with edible flowers.

Scoopable “Cold Flower Doughnuts” – ¥450 (Before Tax)

Combined with refreshing summertime lemon jelly is a creamy panna cotta filled with lumps of fresh fruit.

On the surface of the jelly is colourful and elegant seasonal edible flowers.

The bottom layer is the super soft panna cotta which enjoys the richness of the fresh cream and the juiciness of the fruits.

The first Tokyo branch of the chocolate dessert shop SÔ CÔ La opened in Harajuku on July 15, 2020. Together with Harajuku Milk & Mot Tram—a shop which opened in collaboration with bubble tea shop Mot Tram and fresh cream shop Milk—SÔ CÔ La serves to further cement Harajuku as the number one place to go for desserts.

SÔ CÔ La Soft Serve Ice Cream: ¥550

SÔ CÔ La Soft Serve Ice Cream Sundae: ¥550

SÔ CÔ La will serve a range of desserts using ruby chocolate—the officially-recognised fourth type of chocolate alongside milk, dark, and white—the cocoa beans of which have a natural pink colour. It has a sweet, sour, and fruity taste. Customers can look forward to trying a range of rich desserts made with this rare type of chocolate and blended with dark chocolate.

The crunchiness of the shop’s handmade “Aragosta Cones” goes perfectly with the rich chocolate blend ice cream.