The traditional tea house of Itohkyuemon, located in the city of Uji, Kyoto, specializes in excellent tea blends. Once again, it has exceeded my expectations when it comes to the varieties of tea products they offer.

You may have heard of their legendary desserts and elaborate authentic matcha sweets. They never cease to amaze me with their elegant flavors and beautiful aesthetics.

At the beginning of summer, I saw these mesmerizing ice-cream bars on one of my friends’ Instagram feeds and I knew I had to order some for myself. I am a fan of Japanese sweets and matcha is one of my favorite flavors, so I instantly messaged him asking for more details.

At the time, in Japan, there was an emergency state and people refrained from going outside, so a trip to Kyoto was out of the question regardless of how much I would’ve wanted it.

As I felt the need to brighten up my gloomy days during the pandemic, I must say that these “luxurious” sweets came just at the right moment.

I was told that you can also purchase these ice-creams on Amazon. Browsing through Itohkyuemon’s official website, I saw there are so many flavors and so many combinations of green tea sweets and products (some so unexpected!) you can choose from, so it took me a while to decide what to order.

After hours of contemplating, I decided on a box of five different flavors of matcha ice-cream bars and it got delivered so quickly given the situation at that time (I couldn’t be happier, though).

I told the postman to leave the package at the front door so to avoid contact and I carefully picked it up after he left. The first thing I did (after unwrapping and washing my hands, of course), was to take my camera and immortalize the moment.

After taking dozens of photos of the beautifully wrapped sweets, I read about each flavor and some information about the shop on the small flier which came in the package. Then, I decided to shoot a video for my newly launched YouTube channel and try my very first Itohkyuemon matcha ice-cream while I was at it.

The flavors that came in the box I ordered were:

Tropical とろぴかる (toropikaru)

The “tropical” flavor was my favorite so far and the first one I tried. Besides the matcha filling, it had a topping of mango, pineapple, and raspberries.

The elegant flavors of matcha and the sour-sweet summerish taste of the chocolate coating and toppings made me feel that this ice-cream should be the representative of summer treats.

Although you can get an idea of how it looked like after seeing the above picture, it is hard to describe in words how delicious it was.

Strawberry/ いちご (Ichigo)

The strawberry matcha ice-cream had, of course, strawberries as topping accompanied by blueberries and raspberries with a beautiful coating of strawberry chocolate. It had a fresh taste and it was divine! I mean, berries and matcha together; what can go wrong?

Matcha/ まっちゃ

This ice-cream bar screams “WA”! It is all made of matcha, with matcha coating and traditional sweets such as daifuku (filled with sweet smoothened white bean paste / shirokoshian), anko (sweet red bean paste), mikan (tangerine) and a bar of matcha chocolate on top. It looks delightful and tastes wonderful. If you are a fan of matcha and Japanese sweets, I am sure this matcha bar will become your number one favorite.

Cherry Blossom/ さくら (sakura)

Another adorable looking ice-cream was the sakura one that had a matcha chocolate bar on top, same as the Matcha flavor one, also topped with daifuku, this time filled with koshian (smooth red bean paste), also with sakura cream paste and a salt pickled sakura flower on top of it.

It was my first time trying out salt pickled sakura flower, but in combination with matcha and the sweet cream of cherry blossom, it turned out to be one of the most delicious things I ever tried.

Mont Blanc/ もんぶらん

The last one was the Mont Blanc flavor. I was pretty surprised and excited to try it out as I thought it is a quite unusual combination (that turned out to be so tasty and my next favorite one after the tropical one).

Topped with chocolate, sweet chestnut, shibukawa kuri (bitter skin chestnut), and mont blanc cream, this ice-cream made me think of autumn and I remembered the time of a new scholar year when I used to pick up fallen chestnuts on the way back home. The flavors are extraordinary and I am sure you will also find it delicious.

Trying out these five flavors of ice-creams from the teahouse Itohkyuemon was pure bliss especially during this period and it certainly put a smile on my face.

Now, I am looking forward to the time this period ends so I can visit their shop and the historical city of Kyoto.

Hopefully, I can taste more of their luxurious sweets soon and maybe also create an original matcha green tea as I heard you can make your blend at the teahouse attached to the main store.

• Official Website
• Official Instagram Page
• Link for the Ice-Cream bars I ordered

Access: