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Baskin-Robbins Japan’s ice cream popularity poll leaves out fan favourite — but why?!

Katie Pask Apr 5, 2023
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Baskin-Robbins Japan’s iconic ice cream flavour gets snubbed in this year’s Elections, and we wanna know why!

American ice-cream chain Baskin-Robbins (or as it’s more popularly known here, 31) is celebrating its 50th anniversary of when it first came to Japan. It’s also currently in the middle of its Flavour Election — an annual popularity poll to find out which one of Baskin-Robbins’ many different flavours is the most popular with customers. With close to 200,000 votes having been cast at the time of writing, it’s clear that this is something ice cream fans across the country take seriously, and with the election being in its third year, everyone must be keen to see which flavour will take the top spot this time.

With such an impressive roster of flavours available, it might be hard for you to pick your absolute favourite, but our reporter Ahiruneko had already decided before he’d even opened up the voting page. His vote would be going to…

… Baskin-Robbins Japan’s iconic Popping Shower ice cream. Released back in 2000 under the name ‘Millennium’, Popping Shower is a mixture of white chocolate and mint-flavoured ice cream, with popping candy spread throughout.

But as Ahiruneko went to cast his vote…

… it wasn’t on the list of flavours at all!

Try as he might, Ahiruneko just couldn’t find Popping Shower on the list of flavours to vote for at all. He checked once more and saw, written underneath the link to the voting page —

“Our by-far most popular flavour, Popping Shower has been inducted into the Baskin Robbins Hall of Fame once more this year!”

But why? In the popularity poll’s inaugural contest back in 2021, Popping Shower was declared the winner with a whopping 507,052 votes, and so in 2022’s poll it was added to the Hall of Fame, presumably as ‘reigning champion’.

But last year’s winner, Chocolate Mint, wasn’t inducted into the Hall of Fame this year, despite taking 2022’s top spot. So how come Popping Shower was ‘retired’ into the Hall of Fame after just one year?

Ahiruneko decided to ask a Baskin-Robbins representative, who told him simply, “It gets too many votes!”

In the 2021 Flavour Election, Popping Shower not only won, but by an impressive margin; it beat the second place spot, Love Potion 31, by over 25,000 votes.

▼ On top of that, its popularity was overwhelmingly well spread over all age and gender demographics.

Popping Shower ended up in the top five for all demographics, with the majority of demographics declaring it their favourite. (It’s not clear what happens to Japanese women once they turn 50 that makes them stop liking Popping Shower as much, but it’s good to see that whatever it is disappears when they hit 60.) And according to a report back in 2021, Popping Shower had been the best selling flavour at Baskin-Robbins for 13 years in a row!

So, Baskin-Robbins Japan decided to ‘retire’ Popping Shower from their Flavour Elections for the simple reason that it’s too darn popular, and including it in the election would render the whole thing pointless. Try as he might, Ahiruneko couldn’t come up with any other kind of food with such a universal appeal, transcending generations. Sushi? Yakiniku? Curry? Nope. Popping Shower may be the food that unites all of Japan.

This year’s election includes a whopping 100 different flavours that have been released over the past fifty years to choose from, so although there was no Popping Shower, Ahiruneko would have no problem finding a replacement to vote for.

Of course, the most scientifically accurate way to find out your favourite flavour of Baskin-Robbins ice cream is to sample them all. Luckily for the SoraNews24 team, Baskin-Robbins have re-released their Anniversary Box containing all 31 flavours currently on the roster, so Ahiruneko wouldn’t be alone in choosing his runner-up. Because after all, there’s nothing we like more here at SoraNews24 than eating an obscene amount of Baskin-Robbins ice cream.

Related: Baskin-Robbins Japan Flavour Election
Images: ©SoraNews24
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