Mille Crêpes

Have you heard of "Mille Crêpes"? If you know a bit of French, you may recognize the meaning as "thousand crepes," but any Francophone will tell you it's not likely to appear (at least not with that name) on the menus of most restaurants or pastry shops in their home country, unlike the similarly-named "mille-feuille," (also named Napoleon, vanilla slice, or custard slice in Anglophone countries and also seen in many variants in countries around the world).

That's because it was originally created in Japan*. Depending on which source you believe, it was either created in 1978 by the pastry shop "Ruelle de Derrière" in Nishi Azabu, Tokyo (closed in 2015) or the "Paper Moon" pastry shop in Minami-Azabu, Tokyo (closed in 2013), then popularized nationwide by the Dotour coffee shop chain which acquired the rights to it.

Much easier to make than a mille-feuille, since it can be made by stacking crepes layered with frosting in between, the recipe spread beyond Japanese borders in the last four decades. In fact, you may already know it in English-speaking countries as the "crepe cake."

* A similar type of layered cake may have also been created in other countries, perhaps even prior to 1978, but it is highly unlikely that it was called "Mille Crêpes."

---

Saza Coffee's Rainbow Mille Crêpes

If you like crepe cakes (or "Mille Crêpes," if you're more familiar with the Japanese variant), and you also have a thing for rainbow-colored sweets (or just love to put them on your social media account), you may want to pay attention to Saza Coffee.

Saza Coffee Co. Ltd., headquartered in Hitachinaka City, Ibaraki Prefecture, has just begun offering their own version of the layered dessert, but in an eye-catching rainbow-colored design.

Using crepes made with healthy Tokachi wheat from Hokkaido which is also used to make udon noodles, and milk-derived cream entirely free of plant synthetic fats or oils, then coloring each crepe with all-natural food colors, this colorful and delicious dessert should bring a smile to your face.

Availability

The Rainbow Mille Crêpes will set you back 620 JPY and is also available for take out.

At first, it will be available from January 10th, 2021, at the Saza Coffee Main Store in Hitachinaka, the Mito Station Store, the Mito Keisei Department Store, the Ōarai Store, and the Tsukuba University Alianza Store in Ibaraki Prefecture, but it will then be rolled out to other locations, perhaps even their Tokyo store in JR Shinagawa Station.

For more information on Saza Coffee, visit their official website here.