Maruta Nericcho Soft Ice Cream DIY, Strawberry and Cider

Japanese candy includes many attempts at imitating ice cream without the meltiness, with varying but usually positive degrees of success. Now we have it in DIY form, with two flavors and these very happy little ice cream cones filling each other. The cider flavor (which likely means ramune) is of particular note, as I haven't had ice cream quite like that before. Maybe it'll work, maybe it'll be a disaster, or somewhere in between.

The contents of this DIY are quite simple, but simplicity can be sweet. A packet representing the ice cream, a spoon, and three cones. Which seems like a bargain considering only two are shown on the package!

Giant Caplico, Chocolate

It's a hot day outside, it sure would be nice for some ice crea---you mean this isn't ice cream??? Actually I knew that. I've seen these fake ice cream cones lying around in stores for a while and I've always been intrigued. Now it's time to see what they're made of. This one certainly looks appetizing, it's large, and promises lots of crispy chocolate!

The snack certainly bears its resemblance to an ice cream cone. Even as I look at it, I'm expecting it to melt. The chocolate is a little soft on the top, but mostly a crispy consistency, and surprisingly not oversweet smelling - actually smells a little bitter, with some sort of a coffee smell in there? Seems promising.

I initially get a surprisingly soft consistency in the chocolate. My teeth tear through it quite easily and it melts down, which is quite something. Almost like room temperature ice cream with the way it melts and goes down my throat. Inside the chocolate has a more solid texture, but it's still not quite crispy like the package seems to make it out. But that's okay because the wafer cone provides penty of crispiness to supplement it. The texture even changes a bit inside the wafer cone to more of a soft cakey consistency, and where it is surrounded by cone this goes VERY well together. I'm pretty impressed by the mixed textures present within here.

The chocolate is also solid. Like the smell it's on the more bitter end of the spectrum, and I mean that in the best way possible, I really get the essence of the chocolate here. The wafer isn't overly sweet either. This makes the snack very light and it all just comes together and forms something very nice. I wonder how this would taste cold...? Maybe it would be a nice cooling alternative to ice cream that way!

Rating: 10 - AWOOOOOOO!!

Ice Cream Lolly, Chocolate

Having had one of these already, I know the greatness of this concept: all the goodness of ice cream in hard candy form, without the need for freezer or the meltiness or the extra calories. But now it's a chocolate flavor! Last time I remarked that the strawberry flavor was too subtle, but I don't expect that to be the case with this one, as chocolate tends to stand out a bit more.

Already it looks like both halves might even be chocolate, because the bottom half has a light brown tone rather than the pure white of the vanilla. However the more likely case here is that some of the chocolate from the chocolate top leaked down into the vanilla part. There's not a very strong smell here, so looks like I'm going to figure out the truth all through taste. The chocolate has a very nice dark color too it though which seems promising.

The chocolate flavor on the top half, like the other lollipop, is quite subtle. I expected a huge burst of chocolate, but it's rather light and faint once again. The vanilla flavor seems that way too, with a bit of milkiness. I keep sucking and sucking on this trying to leech more flavor out of it, because what's there is great, but it never seems to be enough. The chocolate flavor is nice and pure, no hint of any ice cream flavor, but it doesn't overdo the sweetness and is overall pleasant, and adding the vanilla on it completes the combination quite well. This one sadly seems even more faint in flavor than the other one... and it's the most tragic thing because the flavors great, I just want more of it... why must they tease me so...

Rating: 5 - Ruff!

Kracie Popin Cookin Cake Shop

Many kinds of cakes here, and they all look so yummy! And rather difficult with all the shapes, but Kracie sure has a way of making it accessible to anyone. I'm interested to see how the solid components are done. There's also ice cream. Everything here looks so fun, and a bright pink color, which I assume is strawberry.

To my surprise, all the solid components are premade. That's a little disappointing, but hey, I guess it just means I'll get to eat everything quicker! That makes this one of the easier DIYs, with only two powders, a pastry bag, and sprinkles to work with. The bags I assume, are the strawberry frosting and the vanilla icing that is shown on the ice cream and wafers.

Tirol Gelato Pack

I already know Tirol churns out some great concoctions, and who doesn't love gelato? A bunch of other Japanese snacks have done a great job replicating ice cream flavors so far, but gelato is a new avenue, as are some of these flavors. The three here are pistachio, milk, and mixed berry, all of which are very exciting flavors. But I got my nose on that pistachio.

Pistachio is up first, and it has a super interesting appearance and smell. Both are true to the nut: the chocolate is green with brown flaky bits mixed in, which creates a fine nutty texture. The smell is equally nutty, and actually quite strong!

The taste displays a little more depth, as it's very creamy, I guess to stay true to the gelato theme, and that balances out the nuttiness very well. No special filling on the inside, but it really doesn't need it, the combination of the nutty flavor and creaminess and crispy rice gives it everything it needs. It really is a great treat that manages to evolve the pistachio flavor into something more. I wish I had more of these, aruff!

Rating: 9 - Arooooo!

Ice Cream Lolly, Strawberry

Ice cream? Lollipop? Sounds like an unlikely pair but the more I think about it the more it could be the next big thing. So many times you want that flavor of ice cream but don't want it to melt or are in colder weather. But this treat promises an ice cream flavor without the brain freeze or melting, and with two flavors to boot - one vanilla and one strawberry!

Unfortunately the treat is smaller than it appears on the package, but still has some quite vibrant colors. The vanilla is a little more brownish than expected, but the strawberry has a nice dark pink color. It's also uneven on the stick, so hopefully it doesn't slide off! Smelling it yields a faint combination of the two flavors, as expected.

Both flavors, just like the smell, are slight, but the more I lick them the more they make sense. As this is ice cream flavored, both are slightly milky. Surprisingly the vanilla flavor comes across much stronger than the strawberry one. Actually if I didn't know any better, I could confuse the strawberry for the cherry on top of the ice cream easily. The combined taste, however, is where this shines. The vanilla flavor is not too sweet, very well defined and authentically vanilla, and then the strawberry part adds a bit of a fruity undertone to the whole thing. It's nice, but it doesn't scream amazing because of its relatively mild flavor. Very pleasant and long lasting though!

Rating: 6 - Aruff!

Baked Ice Cream Kit Kat

So this I believe marks the first Japanese exclusive Kit Kat flavor I've had and boy is it a flavor. For those who don't know Japan has tons of exclusive Kit Kats. It's actually not fair. If I knew this I would've gone back in time to tell mama wolf to swim to Japan before having me but nooo, that's an impossibility. So it's still possible to get them here, but it's more inconvenient for sure. I'm interested to see how they get an ice cream flavor in this, and you can bake them! Luckily Japan Crate provided two so I will be trying one as is and one baked.