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Second-tier Japanese convenience store’s “Drinkable Soft Serve Ice Cream” is a top-tier dessert

Casey Baseel Jun 2, 2024
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Minisof’s Super Milk is worth tracking down.

The Japanese convenience store world is dominated by the “big three”: 7-Eleven, Family Mart, and Lawson. Other chains do exist, but they have to do something really special to grab people’s attention, and we deeply, deeply appreciate how Ministop has chosen to do so: by providing the best soft serve ice cream you can get at a convenience store in Japan.

Ministop’s ice cream is so good that the company even has a chain of ice cream parlors, called Minisof by Ministop, that ditch the convenience store part of the setup entirely and just sell ice cream.

Somehow, this was something that our Japanese-language reporter Seiji Nakazawa wasn’t aware of until recently. We’ll cut the guy some slack, though, seeing as how he’s still expanding his gastronomic resume (he just ate a burrito for the first time ever the other day), and also because when Seiji stumbled across a Minisof branch, he also found out for us that they serve “Drinkable Soft Serve Ice Cream,” found in the section of the menu labeled のむソフトクリーム.

This was, of course, something that Seiji knew he needed to try as he continues to broaden his edible/drinkable horizons. The menu listed a number of different Drinkable Soft Serve Ice Cream flavors, all priced at 590 yen (US$3.80), and though he was tempted by the strawberry, cookies and cream, and tiramisu versions, in the end he decided to go with the Super Milk, or Cho Milk, if you’re ordering in Japanese.

That might look like a large drinking cup filled up with ice cream and topped with a swirl of whipped cream, but it’s not. That whole thing is ice cream, from the bottom of the cup all the way up to the very tip. There’s so much ice cream that it actually makes us feel a little giddy to look at it.

Like we said, there’s no whipped cream, but there is a topping of sorts, which you can see in the glistening cervices in the photo here.

That’s condensed milk which the staff pours on after they finish swirling the ice cream into the cup. So yes, the Super Milk is true to its name by being a cup of creamy vanilla ice cream enhanced with another dairy product to bring out the maximum amount of milky flavor.

Remember, though, this isn’t a dessert to eat, but one to drink. Seiji was honestly a little skeptical as he stuck a straw into the towering mass of ice cream, and was fully prepared to go ask the staff for a spoon if and when he couldn’t suck any of it up.

But to Seiji’s surprise, and his taste buds’ delight, Minisof’s Drinkable Soft Serve Ice Cream really is drinkable! The ice cream isn’t runny or watery, but its texture is soft and consistent enough that it flows smoothly up the straw, like a river making its way from the cup to your mouth. This direct delivery made the ice cream taste especially sweet, and he’s now firmly convinced that Minisof is onto something in turning soft serve ice cream into a beverage.

The only downside is that the Drinkable Soft Serve Ice Cream isn’t available at regular Ministop convenience stores. You can only get it at Minisof branches, and there’s only one in Tokyo, in the Ikebukuro neighborhood (though there’s also a branch in Kawasaki, the city neighboring Tokyo to the south, and one in Yokohama, to the south of Kawasaki). Still, the Super Milk Drinkable Soft Serve Ice Cream is tasty enough to make a special sweets run for, especially if you’re already in Ikebukuro to check out its gigantic anime store or Great Floating Buddha.

Related: Minisof location list
Photos ©SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]