New marvelously mysterious mochi ice creams celebrate 40 years of Häagen-Dazs Japan

Taste-testing the mixes of ice cream, mochi, and one other all-star Japanese dessert ingredient.

This year Häagen-Dazs is celebrating 40 years since the premium ice cream brand arrived in Japan, but while Häagen-Dazs has been a constant in the Japanese sweets scene for four decades now, the same can’t be said for each and every one of its flavors. A key factor to winning over Japanese sweets fans is a steady flow of new and seasonal treats, which means others have to be pruned from the lineup to make room for new arrivals.

But as Häagen-Dazs Japan celebrates its 40th birthday, it’s taking a look back and brining back some old favorites, and in its latest batch they’re even getting some new twists.

Chocolat Classic was the first chocolate flavor that Häagen-Dazs Japan developed itself, and now both it and Dolce de Leche Caramel are back in stores, dubbed as Revival Chocolate and Revival Caramel. Or, more accurately, they’re now called “Revival Chocolate and Hana Mochi” and “Revival Caramel and Hana Mochi,” since these new versions get sweet mochi rice cakes as extra additions, plus one more traditional Japanese dessert element.

One of the things we’ve learned in life is that there’s usually little, if any, point in trying to resist chocolate, so we started our taste-test with the Revival Chocolate (or “Fukkoku Chocolate,” as it’s called in Japanese) and Hana Mochi. Lift off the lid, though, and you’ll quickly see that there are three layers to this dessert.

The chocolate ice cream actually sits at the bottom, on top of it is mochi, stretchy chewy but soft enough that it can be cut through with a spoon. On top of both of them, though, is a dollop of anko, or sweet bean paste, enhanced with chocolate and a touch of caramel.

Combined, these make for a rather complex, but thoroughly enjoyable, mixture of flavors. The ice cream here is actually a bitter chocolate flavor, while anko has more of a straightforward sweetness, yet in this case it’s tempered by the caramel. Add in the rice notes of the mochi, and this almost feels like you’re eating ice cream, cake, and a creamy chocolate all in the same bite. It’s also pleasurably mysterious to eat a dessert that has this sort of pseudo-melty texture (from the mochi and anko) even while it’s still nicely chilled.

Now let’s move on to the Revival Caramel and Hana Mochi.

Once again, we’ve got three sweet strata here: ice cream, mochi, and anko.

Really, though, there are four ingredients stacked here. Since it’s unlikely that anyone buying Revival Caramel ice cream is going to complain by saying “Hey, this tastes like caramel!”, Häagen-Dazs doesn’t hold back on the marquee ingredient and drizzles caramel sauce over the caramel ice cream before slapping on the mochi, which here gets topped with rich caramel-infused anko. The lack of caramel restraint is well-advised here, since Häagen-Dazs has crafted its flavor to balance in that ideal spot where it’s primarily sweet but with just the right amount of subtle, but never harsh, bitterness.

▼ And once again, the texture is fantastic.

At 351 yen (US$2.50) these are a little more expensive than most single-serving supermarket/convenience store ice creams, but we think we can find room for them in our budgets and stomachs, especially since they’ll only be around for a limited time.

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