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Got a sweet tooth? Here are our reporters’ favorite new-release convenience store desserts

Dale Roll Aug 5, 2021
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Try one of these seven tasty treats the next time you have a sweets craving!

Convenience stores are a treasure of Japanese life. With their various types of warm food; copious amounts of tasty bentos, rice balls, and sandwiches; and heavily stocked shelves of sweets, snacks, ramen, and drinks, you really can find just about anything you’ll want in a hungry pinch, and at a great price!

What’s even better, though, is that they’re always putting out new things, so if you get tired of the usual fare, you can usually find something different to eat. Some of our favorite things to get at convenience stores are sweets because they’re always coming out with new, inventive recipes, and since August 2 was “Oyatsu no Hi”–“Snack Day”–we asked our reporters what their favorite “conbini” sweets are at the moment. They didn’t disappoint. Read on to find some new tasty treats to try!

Family Mart’s Rum Raisin Butter Biscuit Sandwich (248 yen/US$2.27)

Though it looks like an ice cream sandwich, be warned that the Butter Biscuit Sandwich is not made of ice cream but of a “butter cheese cream”. Still, don’t let that discourage you from trying it; our reporters said that the cream just melts in your mouth, and combined with the aroma of rum and the chunky raisins, it is simply heavenly.

We love the other iterations of butter sandwiches, which are a popular snack souvenir from Hokkaido, but these just might take the cake–or the cookie?–as our favorite. If you like rum raisin, you definitely need to give it a try.

Lawson’s Omatcha Mochi-mochi Mochi Shokkan Roll with Matcha Owarabi Mochi (380 yen)

Now, this is a snack that combines the best of East and West. The Omatcha Mochi-mochi Mochi Shokkan Roll with Matcha Owarabi Mochi is a matcha-flavored cake, covered with matcha cream and rolled around chewy matcha-dusted warabi mochi pieces. Just one bite is enough to send you into a blissful state with its delightful matcha flavors and hint of kuromitsu brown sugar syrup.

It’s extra fluffy and soft, with the added chewiness of the mochi inside, providing an interesting and varied texture. Plus, it also comes pre-cut into six pieces in a nice sturdy case, so if you have enough self-restraint, you can eat just one piece and put it back in the fridge for later. Good luck with that, though.

7-Eleven’s 7 Premium Chocolate Banana Omelet (267 yen)

Image: 7-Eleven

In spite of the name, this dessert is not an omelet but a cake, but because it’s wrapped up all nice and pretty like a Japanese rolled omelet, they’re calling it an “omelet”. In any case, the nomenclature really doesn’t matter if the sweet is good–and it is! The chocolate sponge cake has a faint bitterness to it that complements the sweetness of the chocolate banana filling nicely. If ever you have a craving for cake, reach for this. You won’t regret it!

7-Eleven’s Baked Bite-Size Pie-wrapped Chocolates (108 yen)

Image: Seven & i Holdings

Honestly, we really don’t have to explain why these delectable morsels made the list, but we will anyway. They’re tiny little chocolate pies, which are made by wrapping pie crust around chocolate pieces before being baked to crispy deliciousness. They have just the right amount of sweetness to pair perfectly with coffee, so, like extra-crispy mini chocolate croissants, they’d make a wonderful addition to your mid-afternoon coffee or tea break at the office.

Family Mart’s Crunchy Sweet-scented Little Chocolate Trees (108 yen)

These have the best level of sweetness to pair with black coffee. For those who like to casually snack on chocolate, these are perfect because they’re not too decadent but still hit that craving. They have an excellent crunch and have a nice element of almond flavor that melds well with the chocolate, making them super delicious. (We ate too many of them, however, and so now they’re on probation.)

Mini-Stop’s Red Melon Parfait (375 yen)

One of our favorite sweets to eat in the summer is Mini-Stop’s ice creams; their soft-serve ice cream, made with Hokkaido milk and heavy cream, is especially delicious. They recently sold a New Vanilla flavor that was made without eggs, but it didn’t change the flavor at all and was still really good!

Mini-Stop also uses their soft-serve in their parfaits, which never fail to please us. Their current flavor on offer is the Red Melon Parfait, but the next one is reportedly going to be a Caramel Macchiato Pudding Parfait, which we also can’t wait to try.

Big Suika Bar (with 200-percent more chocolate) (recommended retail price of 108 yen)

Screenshot: Lotte

This watermelon-flavored popsicle, shaped like a slice of suika (watermelon), is a convenience store staple sweet and can be found at any store in the country, but this year they’ve upped the number of chocolate seeds in it by 200 percent. Part of the fun is biting through the extra crunchy exterior to get to the softer interior where the chocolate seeds await, and now that anticipation has increased by a large margin. Frankly, we’re worried about how we’ll feel when they go back to the regular version.

So there you have it–our favorite convenience store sweets of the season! Did you find any you want to try? Just remember that some of these flavors are limited-edition, so they won’t be around forever and you’ll want to try them sooner rather than later. But they are mostly new versions of things that the stores already sell, so even if you miss them, you always have their next flavor to look forward to. I wonder what they’ll come up with next? We can’t wait to find out!

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