About Takeshita Seika Milcook Ice Cream Bars

It's our annual tradition and I wrote about last year's adventure here.

It's a lot of fun to try the Saga Prefecture Takeshita Seika Milcook ice bars they have at the APA Hotel near Saga Station. (The hotel name changed.) I think they must be testing out the new flavors for the company.

We aren't the only ones who want to eat all the different flavors of ice bars. In fact, it's been impossible to try them all as we have a limit of two or three bars each after having a buffet lunch.

Here's the three I tried this month.

Last on my list is the "Rakuto Berry" Blueberry Yogurt flavor, popular this summer as noted here.

The reason this gets the lowest score is the flavor: the outer blueberry coating was almost grape flavor artificial; the yogurt inside tasted like Yakult. Way too sweet for me.

Number two was good, but also way too sweet, as you'd probably expect...

for Creme Brule flavor!

"Otona no Miclook" is funny - this is really a flavor adult women would like the most. They got the flavor and texture really close. Not bad at all, just so sweet that I wouldn't want this again.

And the clear winner for both me and my husband was this really Japanese flavor.

I've mentioned before that my favorite ice bar is kinako mochi, and this one is also kinako flavor, but made with roasted black soybeans.

You might think from the look of it that there's a chocolate coating. Nope. That is the roasted black soybean kinako coating. 

The flavor is barely sweet at all from the sweet azuki inside. 

Probably this kind of Japanese taste isn't popular among foreigners, but I loved it. I hope I can find it in normal supermarkets soon.

Another fun thing the restaurant had is the Black Mont Blanc "crunch" topping to add to their soft serve ice cream.

I didn't sample this one, but there were plenty of ice bars. I tried a bite of my husband's "Bitter Black Mont Blanc" - just a normal Black Mont Blanc with chocolate flavor and choco chips.