I’ve recently returned from a holiday in Japan, so, in exciting news, for the next month or so #icecreamthurs will be all from Japan! I had a lovely catch up with a friend of mine who’s studying in Tokyo and we went to a smoothie bar he wanted to try. It turned out to be a gorgeous cafe with fun red, green and natural timber decor – I was hooked even before I saw the icecream display cabinet. To dine in, you had to order a drink not just an icecream (served on a stick), so we both picked one smoothie and one icecream. I started with the Japanese citrus smoothie, which was absolutely delicious! Yes there was lots of ice, but the freshness of the flavours was really surprising, and there was definitely a streak of some kind of berry in there. I’m guessing the citrus in the drink included orange, grapefruit and maybe yuzu, a Japanese citrus. Our icecreams arrived served on frozen plates to keep them from melting in the spring warmth. I chose the earl grey and orange flavour, which was beautifully creamy and had a subdued bergamot flavour that meant it wasn’t overly sweet. The texture had flecks of orange and tea inside – I would love to come back to try more of their nearly 20 icecream flavours!
Paletas Cafe, Tokyo Midtown, 9-7-3 Asakasa, Minato-ku, Tokyo http://www.paletas.jp
