Mochi ice cream facts for kids
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| Course | Dessert |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Japan |
| Region or state | East Asia |
| Serving temperature | Cold |
| Main ingredients | Mochi, ice cream, powdered sugar |
Mochi ice cream is a yummy treat from Japan. It's made of soft, chewy mochi (which is pounded sticky rice) wrapped around a scoop of ice cream. A Japanese-American businesswoman named Frances Hashimoto, along with her husband Joel, created this cool dessert.
What is Mochi Ice Cream?
Mochi ice cream is a small, round dessert. It has a soft, chewy outer layer of mochi. Inside, you'll find a creamy ice cream filling. The ice cream gives it flavor and a smooth texture. The mochi adds a sweet taste and a unique chewiness.
Common ice cream flavors include vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. You can also find exciting flavors like Kona coffee, plum wine, green tea, and red bean. Sometimes, the mochi itself is flavored to match the ice cream. When mochi is made, it's dusted with potato or cornstarch. This stops it from sticking together while it's being shaped.
How Mochi Ice Cream Was Created
Before mochi ice cream, there was a Japanese sweet called daifuku. Daifuku often has a sweet adzuki bean filling. Making mochi ice cream was tricky because mochi and ice cream need different temperatures. Scientists had to figure out how to make them work together. They needed the right thickness so the dessert would stay perfect, no matter the temperature.
An early version of this dessert was made by a company called Lotte in 1981. It was called Yukimi Daifuku. This early version used rice starch instead of sticky rice. It also used rice milk instead of real ice cream.
Frances Hashimoto is known as the inventor of mochi ice cream. She was the president of a company called Mikawaya. Her husband, Joel Friedman, first thought of wrapping small ice cream balls in traditional Japanese mochi. Frances then took his idea and made it into the popular dessert we know today. She introduced seven different flavors of mochi ice cream.
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Mikawaya started making mochi ice cream in the United States in 1993. It took over ten years to perfect the process for making it in large amounts. This was because the ingredients interact in complex ways. They tried many times to get the delicate mochi dough to wrap around the ice cream without making a soggy mess. Joel Friedman shared that they even brought in experts from different fields. These included construction and microbiology, to create the best production building.
Mikawaya first launched their mochi ice cream in Hawaii in 1994. This frozen treat became very popular. In its first four months, it made up 15% of the market for new frozen treats.
Mochi ice cream became super popular in the UK in 2021. This happened because of a viral trend on TikTok. The trend, called 'Looking for Little Moons in Big Tesco', got over 341 million views. This led to a huge increase in sales, with a 1400% jump in Tesco stores alone.
Today, stores like Trader Joe's sell mochi ice cream. You can find flavors like mango, chocolate, and even purple yam in some places.
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