What is Japan's new 'summer matcha' ice cream flavor from confectioner Morinaga?【Taste test】
Japan has an array of seasonal sweets flavors, and summer is no exception. Some of these are connected to produce that's in season, like watermelon and peach, while others flavors are summer favorites because of their refreshing or cooling sensations, like mint chocolate and lemon.
But we were puzzled when, on our most recent dessert run, we saw that one of our options was 'summer matcha.' Matcha has become such a staple flavor of the Japanese sweets scene that it's really a year-round thing, and the green tea harvest season starts in spring.
Adding to the mystery is the fact that Morinaga, the makers of the Mow brand of ice cream, are selling both the limited-time Mow Uji Matcha Summer Scent Matcha at the same time as their always-on-sale regular Mow Uji Matcha flavor.
▼ Summer matcha on the left, year-round matcha on the right. And if you're wondering about the brand's name, 'Mow,' pronounced with a long O like in 'mow the lawn,' is the onomatopoeia in Japanese for the sound of a cow mooing.
So yes, we were puzzled by the unexpected appearance of 'summer matcha,' but also curious. More than anything else, we were hungry, and one of the philosophical pillars that SoraNews24 is built on is that whenever the possibility to do so arises, one should always pursue the truth by eating double desserts, so that's what we set out to do.
Popping the tops off of both cups, we could see that the Summer Scent Matcha's shade of green was a touch deeper than the regular version's. We figure that's a result of how while both flavors source their matcha from the Kyoto Prefecture town of Uji, the Summer Scent boasts that its matcha comes from specialized tea merchant Marukyu Koyamaen.
Grabbing two spoons, so as not to mix their flavors, we then took a taste of each…
…and…
…couldn't immediately tell the difference.
In and of itself, this wasn't such a huge problem, since it's hard to get upset about not being able to instantly differentiate between 'delicious' and 'delicious,' which were our first impressions of both Mow matcha flavors. Still, there has to be something that's supposed to set one apart from the other, right?
As is so often the case in life, it turned out that the correct course of action was to keep eating ice cream.
Making our way closer to the bottom of the cups, the sadness that we now had less ice cream than we did just a few moments before was counterbalanced by the newfound knowledge that Mow's Summer Scent and regular matcha flavors are, in fact, different. The regular version, pictured above, starts with a sharper hit of green tea bitterness, and the strong matcha notes continue down to its core. After a few bites, the bitterness never disappears from your palate until sometime after you've completely finished the cup, making for a mature, soothing flavor profile.
Meanwhile, the Summer Scent Matcha, while still having a properly pronounced green tea taste, is gentler. It leads with more sweet and creamy flavors, for a lighter, more refreshing effect, which meshes with the idea of making a more 'summery' matcha flavor, which Morinaga says was its goal. We don't have any equipment with which to measure whether or not the Summer Scent Matcha is actually more fragrant than the regular Mow Matcha, but with the bitterness being less insistent and attention-grabbing, we did feel like we could notice a stronger tea aroma too.
Price-wise, we paid 184 yen (US$1.30) for the limited-time Mow Summer Scent Matcha and 102 yen for the regular matcha, though we found the latter at a discounted price during a multi-market grocery shopping trip, so the price differential probably isn't usually that large.
To really appreciate the differences between the Summer Scent and regular Mow matcha, it's probably easiest to eat them both in the same sitting, so we recommend either saving extra room for dessert or enlisting a friend to split the two cups half-and-half with…or maybe inviting three of your friends if you want to add the two different Häagen-Dazs Japan green tea ice creams to your bill of fare as well.
Photos ©SoraNews24
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