Kuromitsu Kinako Soy Ice Cream by Chateraise

This is another well-curated and unique ice cream flavour by Châteraisé. Kuromitsu Kinako Soy Ice Cream. Kuromitsu literally means "black honey" and is a Japanese syrup similar to molasses in taste. Kinako is soy powder, usually toasted until it acquires a woody and nutty fragrance. These were toppings  layered over a soymilk ice cream, as you can see in the images below.

It turned out to be one of my favourite ice cream topping combinations.

There was a rich toasted soy taste with a tinge of natural nutty sweetness, and the toasted woody fragrance was very strong, like a well-done kinako from top-end Japanese sweets shops. 

Furthermore, the kuromitsu wasn't too sweet, so I got the complex molasses taste without the sweetness overpowering the mouthful. The woody toasty kinako taste also paired well with the darkness of the kuromitsu. 

The soy ice cream base also further enhanced the soy taste with mellow and creamy bean-like nuttiness, so that was a very good combination. It was like a fragrant toasted warabi mochi winning combination, but the tasteless mochi is replaced by the fullness of creamy soy.

As you can see from the ingredients list, konyaku powder was added, which I suspect may have been used to thicken the kuromitsu so it wasn't too sweet but also not too watery, so it stuck nicely to each spoonful of ice cream instead of dripping off. (Click the photo to enlarge.)

The other super interesting point is that the kuromitsu is labelled as containing "apple". So it seems that the sugar used to make it might have come from apple - something I've never heard of before.

I would highly recommend trying this if you can get your hands on one. Alternatively if you can find a Japanese supermarket nearby, you could try purchasing a kinako and kuromitsu dessert, then separately getting soymilk ice cream and combining them!

Check out other interesting ice creams:

• [also from Chateraise] Chardonnay White Wine and Gold Chocolate Ice Cream by Chateraise
• Japanese Soy Sauce Ice Cream by Kamada Shoyu
• Japanese Red Snow Crab Ice Cream by Tomoda Sailing
• White Chocolate Nori Ice Cream by Tom's Palette
• Herbal Ginseng Ice Cream
• Taiyaki Parfait
• McDonald's Red Velvet McFlurry

Discover other toasted soy snacks:

• WowButter - Toasted Soy Butter and Supposed "Peanut Butter Substitute"
• Matcha Kinako Honey Toast