Mochi is customarily eaten at New Year in Japan, and one way to fill your personal quota of rice cake consumption is through mochi-laden, red bean soups. These hot desserts are perfect for the frosty New Year weather so became traditional to serve during this season. There are two types, zenzai and oshiruko. Japan’s branches of Dean & Deluca have already released their matcha latte-inspired take on oshiruko, and now Hotel Chocolat have announced their own modern take on zenzai.

By combining traditional ingredients with some other suitable treats, they have created the ‘Shinshun Zenzai Sundae’. Shinshun is another way to say New Year, which literally means ‘new spring’. This may seem strange at the beginning of January, but traditionally, New Year in Japan is associated with the coming of a new spring, despite it still being a few months away. This is a remnant of the time when Japan went by the lunar calendar and celebrated New Year closer to spring.

The sundae has Hotel Chocolat’s own ‘Ice Cream of the Gods’, which is cacao milk flavour, as a base, and organic red bean paste has been added, along with matcha whipped cream and mandarin. Not only that, the sundae is also packed with candied chestnuts, white mochi, and Okinawan brown sugar syrup.

This combination of Japanese and western dessert ingredients is sure to start the New Year off sweet, so it will go on sale from 1st January in selected Hotel Chocolat stores in Japan costing 850 yen.