In convenience stores such as Seven-Eleven and FamilyMart, you can find a popsicle in a blue bag with a funny picture of a boy. It is a vegan popsicle GariGarikun (ガリガリ君) with a flavor of soda. “Garigari” is a Japanese onomatopoeic word that represents the sound that occurs when you crush hard things such as an ice cube with your teeth (and “-kun” is a word used to address a boy or a man who is younger or the same age as the speaker). As a popsicle, it has a nice name. It gives me images of hard cold ice, ice shaver, and shaved ice – something I want to have on a hot summer day.
Like other soda popsicles, GariGarikun was pale blue though the color of this picture is not good.
As I expected, it was refreshing to eat it. It was crunchy and had a slight flavor of lime juice. I enjoyed the crunchiness of the ice and thought it had a refined taste compared with soda popsicles I used to eat when I was little. Soda popsicles have been loved by children in many years, and they seem to have evolved.
I ate the popsicle in a little haste because I wanted to check the stick in the popsicle. If “当たり (Atari (win))” is printed on your stick, you can get another GariGarikun at the store you bought it. This time I didn’t win, as there was nothing printed on the stick.
In addition to this soda-flavored one, GariGarikun seems to have a variety of flavors such as cola, Kyushu mandarin orange, pear, grapefruits, and sports drink. I don’t think I have seen them before, but these five products seem to be vegan. According to the information on the website of the manufacturer, an ice cream company Akagi Nyugyo, they contain only apple as an allergen. GariGarikun is the company’s most popular product series and one of the bestselling popsicles in Japan. The soda popsicle is a regular product and available all the time.
*Next day, I found the pear-flavored GariGarikun at Seven-Eleven. I liked its sweet smell, but it tasted much sweeter than the soda popsicle. It contained 2% of pear juice, but I couldn't feel the flavor of a pear. I prefer the pale blue GariGarikun.
No comments:
Post a Comment