Japanese ice cream
 

Hi guys!

I am an english student and have been given a case study on the ice cream market in japan, As i know very little about this amazing country, I need your help !!! I have a few questions for you JF people...
Well first I would like to know how often do you think Japanese people eat ice cream and how much are they willing to spend on ice cream ?
Then could you tell me the favourite most famous japanese brands of high range ice cream ? Also do you think Japanese would rather have a light ice cream to a heavy creamy one ?

(And to finish can you find Ben and Jerry's ice cream in Japan anymore?)


Thank you so much in advance, much appreciated!! :ywave:

Although I can't answer on the rest, I'm sure if you hit Ben and Jerry's website they'll have information on where they distrubute their products, or have a contact address to someone in the company you could ask.

Baskin Robbins Ice Cream product is very famous here..
Since summer season is approaching nearer, most of Japanese people will eat ice creams almost every day..

The most popular high end icecream here is Haagen Dazs. The little cups are about 250 yen from convenience stores, but most icecreams are priced at 100-150 yen, and that is what most people are willing to pay.

As above, a lot of people would eat icecream almost every day in summer here because it's so hot. Others perhaps just on weekends.

People like both creamier icecreams and lighter ones- there is a huge range available here, with new versions/products constantly being introduced- it would be a very competitive market.

Oh, and I've never seen Ben and Jerry's in the 12 years I've lived here.

Thank you
 

Thanks a lot to you all for your replies ! :pinkbow: They are very useful for my research.

Actually Ben and jerry's tried but didn't succeed because they had distribution issues and it was hard for them to compete with already established brands... What's more I think japan industrial structure of keiretsu is complicated and make it difficult for foreign firms to come to Japan. :glasses:
So they were very briefly available at 7/11 stores but no one noticed apparently !
Is that true that Japanese people are very demanding in term of quality of the items they purchase ?

I can't comment on ice cream but when it comes to perishable goods, supermarkets seem to be much stricter in Japan than in the west about moving on stock before it gets old. I've seen bacon for sale in the UK that was fairly turning green. That, generalizing from my experience, would not happen in Japan. People talk and they take reputation very seriously so if word is out that a product is bad, it will quite likely damage sales. Looks at Chinese gyoza. Producers in Japan are possibly more sensitive to this and take more measures to avoid upsetting the faith, so when someone does slip up it's bigger news than it might be in the West.

I would say that more than 'quality' as opposed to 'basic' then people in Japan don't like a bad deal; if they buy expensive 'quality' goods, they expect them to live up to that description. They will often buy cheaply as a matter of course, happily so, and not demand more than the price is worth, but they expect it to be fresh and safe to consume and that's an issue in which they can be (justifiably) uncompromising.

japanese ice cream is exquisite!! i love the green tea ice cream they serve at sushi restaurants. green tea is my favourite. usually i find the mango ones they serve at this particular place to be too powdery for my liking. sesame ice cream i think is an acquired taste like sushi.

I am a student as well and this is really helpful but
 

Is it true that japanese people think that they created farming, that English and Chinese languages are similar and that Japan is the only country in the world that has seasons?

One more thing what is your favourate ice cream?

Thank you very much

Hmm I dunno much about Japanese bran ice creme but I do enjoy the Mochi Green Tea ice creme I will admit its first time I've seen and tasted Ice Creme that is wrapped in riceflour. Hard to find sometimes here in the US gotta look in some near by Japanese novelty stores sometimes.

If you are interested in ice cream in Japan, you must watch these:

YouTube - Life In Tokyo: Vlog #28 Ice Cream City Part 1

YouTube - Life In Tokyo: Vlog #28 Ice Cream City Part 2

To be honest, though, most places don't have crazy flavors like that, and green tea ice cream and vanilla are the most common.

From what I've seen, Baskin Robbins is deffo the most popular. Ben and Jerry's is NOT in Japan - I was GUTTED when I found this out. Japanese seem to prefer a lighter ice cream (thats how it's served anyways).

My fave flavour of Japanese ice cream - Calpis Ice!

Kuro-goma ice-cream is the best.

If we're talking about ice cream consumed at home,then it's my opinion that Japan is a joke when compared to America. You have basically two choices: hagen dazs or cheap brands. I'm sure haagen dazs tastes better than the cheap stuff, but it certainly doesn't justify the price. With that said, if you want to have flavors other than chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry then you'll have to get haagen dazs. Aside from straight ice cream, they have different ice cream snacks such as things resembling dove bars and the like. I used to love ice cream in America and now I hardly ever eat it. I'm sure if I lived in or near a big city I'd have more flavors to choose from, but as it is my perspective is based on the inaka. From what I can tell, people here don't eat ice cream every day at all. It might be something eaten as a snack or dessert after working the rice fields or some special occasion like that, but I don't see people eating ice cream too much here. It should be noted that the sizes of the cartons of ice cream are completely different. I never bought haagen dazs in California because it was too expensive there, too... but regular ice cream cartons were about a half gallon where as the Japanese ice creams that you normally see would probably fit in a coffee cup. If you get off-brand ice cream then they have semi-decent sizes, but you're looking to spend around 400-500 yen I believe. In California it was usually less than $2 for a half gallon. I guess dairy is more expensive in Japan... even though I have a milk factory about a hundred feet from my apartment.

There are also popsicle like things and plenty of them, but again, the variety does't come close to that in America. Although the watermeon popsicles wth chocolate seeds are great!

As far as eating ice cream when you're out goes... lately baskin robins has come about around here and people do like to eat that. I think it's pretty good, but again it's totally over priced (just like it was in America). I'd almost argue that buying Baskin Robins doesn' differ too much from buying Haagen Dazs though! As far as soft serve ice cream goes, Japan is king. In America I've had 3 flavors (not including frozen yogurt): Vanilla, Chocolate, and Vanilla/Chocolate swirl. In Japan I've had ALL kinds of flavors and plan to eat more. I've even had bamboo flavored ice cream!

Has anyone tried the new Black Thunder ice cream by the way? I was actually surpised. The candy is just whatever, but the ice cream was pretty good.

Sometimes Japanese serve their ice cream in a rather unusual way.Sometimes they it in a bowl, but they also serve green tea ice cream in between monaka.Monaka is a Japanese sweet, is made with two sweet wafers and is then filled with a paste.In Japan, they fill these wafers with green tea ice cream making a delicious treat similar to what we know as an ice cream sandwich.

Ben and Jerry's was popular there, but there were too many problems with distribution and getting it past customs so they pulled out.

That sounds pretty good. What flavor is monaka and what about this paste?

I've seen pictures of Coldstone Creamery in Tokyo, but with how much shops relocate, shut down, etc, I really hope there's one still there. I must have Coldstone! :D

Japanese ice cream is exquisite! I love the cream green tea ice cream they serve in sushi restaurants. Green tea is my favorite. Usually, I find they serve mangoes at this particular location to be too dusty for my taste. sesame ice cream, I think it's an acquired taste, like sushi

Ive heard of this ice cream called "babahera", is it true that you can only get it in Japan?

lol I'm Japanese and I had to look up "babahera" because I've never heard the word.

Japanese Wiki says it's only sold on the streets in Akita Prefecture.

ive heard its delicious ^^ but there's not much other info on it is there? i would love to find the recipie, oh well must be pretty special

I live in Toyama (which is far from Akita but kind of up north in a weird way...) and I've never heard of that before.

It's funny because if a Japanese were to ask me about babahera, I'd immediately imagine a baba-- or like an old Japanese lady. Then my mind would wander to babahara, which would consist of an old lady telling me her life story and gossipping about the neighborhood and telling me about her granddaughters who are roughly my age and then finalizing the conversation with the innevitable 「気い付けてねぃー」... the fact that she is older and you kinda just have to go with it makes it hara-worthy. Then again, babahara is better than babanara.

But going back to babahera... that looks interesting. I would NOT be surprised if I were to see that in my town (in which you'd swap a tulip shape for a rose shape). If I ever go to Akita-ken (which I'd really like to travel to the northern prefectuers someday...) (I've only been as far as Niigata and Nagano).

EDIT:
I found this blog which has a little thing about babahera (and a bit about toyama beneath it)
あるもん探しの旅

Babahera vendor:


Scoop it up!


There you go!



I don't mind looking a recipe if you read Japanese.

Japanese ice cream
 

That looks like something sold in Nagasaki, but I forgot what ti's called. I wonder if it's the same thing?

Japanese ice cream
 

Yes,I'd say that they like lighter ice-cream than Heavier one.The Japanese people are very conscious about their health so they would prefer lighter than the heavy one.:)

I think you're talking about Chirin Chirin Ice from Nagasaki.

Both Chirin Chirin and Babahera are said to be less "milky" than regular icecream.

I've been to both Akita and Nagasaki but never in the summer, so I haven't tasted either one myself yet.

Ice cream is always tasty to me ,

thanks for sharing all of your ice cream eating experience ,

i am thinking to go Japan this winter ,

i gonna try Japanese ice cream on that time ..............................:ywave:

awww ice-cream...
Japan seems to have all sorts and lots of different flavours of ice-cream..

tea...sushi....

they really seem to love it~ hehe ^-^

Ice tabetai!! (I wanna eat ice cream!)

Is a very popular catchphrase here lol

and you gotta distinguish between soft-cream and ice-cream,
as in cone or not

And how would you refer to soft-cream? (I'm expecting the obvious here, but it might not be what I think it is!)

Yeah when they say soft-cream they mean an ice-cream cone, ice cream is more like the jug you get from the grocery store.

I'm not sure I answered your question, did i?