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American ice cream chain Cold Stone Creamery has begun making a resurgence in Japan in 2023. While once fairly common in the capital region, the chain was down to only two locations at the start of this year, with none in Tokyo since the Lumine Est Shinjuku department store branch closed in 2021. However, it returned to Machida City in Tokyo in March and then to popular Tokyo youth culture district Harajuku in June with Tokyo-only flavors to boot. There are now currently five branches nationwide, with the three other locations in Chiba Prefecture, Tochigi Prefecture and Mie Prefecture. Mochi Ice Cream Box
▼ The Machida City, Tokyo Prefecure location is near Tamasakai Station in a building shared with a Tsukiji Gindako takoyaki shop.
Our reporter-with-a-sweet-tooth Mr Sato was undeniably excited when the Harajuku branch opened earlier this year because of the convenience of its location. While in the area recently, he noticed a special year-end deal that the chain began offering on December 22 in the form of an ice cream takeout box featuring six of its most popular flavors for 3,002 yen, making the combination cheaper than buying the individual flavors by 640 yen.
He went to buy one for himself and watched as the staff prepared all six of the individual flavors then and there Cold Stone-style, which took about ten minutes total. Depending on how busy the shop is, he cautions readers that it could take significantly longer for everything to be ready. The staff also thankfully sent him home with one hour’s worth of dry ice in the box, which allowed him to be anxiety-free about the ice cream melting on the train ride home.
Upon opening the box at home, he was delighted by the colorful nature of the flavors next to each other. Each one was about 120 grams, which is slightly larger than the chain’s typical small (“Like it”) size of 100 grams.
He then admired each of the six flavors one by one.
Oreo Overload: Oreo cookies, chocolate chips, and chocolate sauce swirled together with sweet cream ice cream.
Berry Angel of Spring: Strawberry and raspberry chunks with whipped cream in strawberry ice cream.
Strawberry Shortcake Serenade: Strawberries, chunks of sponge cake, and whipped cream mixed with sweet cream ice cream. This one is the most popular flavor in Japan.
Chocolate Devotion: Brownie bits, chocolate chips, and chocolate sauce in a decadent chocolate ice cream.
Party Mint Blue: M&M’s, Oreos, and rainbow sprinkles in a cool blue mint ice cream.
Cheesecake Fantasy: Blueberries, strawberries, and graham crackers mixed in with sweet cheesecake ice cream.
All of these flavors were tantalizing to Mr Sato, who thought that this particular lineup should be called the “god series.” He wanted to eat all of them at once, but that would definitely give him brain freeze. Instead, he sat down in a warmly heated part of his room and first sampled the Berry Angel of Spring, which he found to be particularly exceptional. He could picture himself eating another dish of ice cream in extreme bliss after getting out of the bath later.
There’s currently no specified end date for Cold Stone Creamery’s year-end takeout box deal, so grab one now for all of your holiday and end-of-the-year gatherings.
Reference: Cold Stone Creamery Japan
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I happen to have, once in awhile, a sweet tooth. This all looks dreamy, creamy, and really good. I could do without the chunks of stuff, but, watcha gonna do. I'll have to plow through all of them.
I must confess to an interest in how overseas chains get on in Japan. They all arrive with a big fanfare but few really succeed.
Cold Stone struck me as all about customization and adding more ingredients to your ice cream, and was very expensive at the time. If your kids wanted to add cookies, sprinkles A, and sprinkles B, you could be looking at 1500 yen for two ice creams. However, with inflation making everything else expensive and increasing inequality, I'm not surprised it has found a (small) niche. Baskin Robbins isn't cheap either, but their flavour with the popping candy, Popping Shower, is massively popular with kids.
Tell me when they invent cookie dough ice cream in Japan.
I presume this is intended for small children to have an occasional treat.
i would estimate at least 300 calories per serving with at least 15g of fat, not good fats either. So, I hope this gentleman did not consume all of these himself or he’s heading for issues.
So, I hope this gentleman did not consume all of these himself or he’s heading for issues.
I don't think you need be worried for Mr. Sato, Steve. He has arteries of iron, and consuming these ice creams probably just lubricated them. Speaking of the ice creams, they look okay but I'm not sure about all the Oreos, M & M's and Graham Crackers in there.
I'm not a great lover of American cakes and confectionary, mostly over sweet with lots of additives and chucks of biscuits and cake that don't belong in ice cream. I just don't get Oreo biscuits and Graham Crackers at all, I much prefer wafers and traditional ginger or brandy snap cones. Fruit and fruit sauces go well with ice cream though.
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