The ice cream corners of convenience stores in Japan can often contain some really eye-catching sweets, including Baby Star Ramen Chicken Noodle covered ice cream bars and even ice cream treats that win the hearts of Olympic reporters in Tokyo.

One particular ice cream bar that's been dominating social media buzz in Japan lately, however, is "kajiru batā aisu” released by Japanese dairy and frozen dessert maker Akagi Nyugyo. The bar is made from fermented butter made from Hokkaido milk (often regarded as the country's best due to its particularly smooth and creamy quality) and its name roughly translates to "ice cream like nibbling on butter."

After being so popular when it was originally released in February 2021 that it was called a "phantom ice cream" for disappearing from store shelves so quickly, it was recently re-released in September to the delight of many.

The bar has certainly lived up to its reputation, delivering a rich and milky taste that really does spread a buttery flavor in your mouth as you bite into it. Even cutting into it is like slicing a hunk of butter!

The buttery ice cream bar has been a hot topic among sweets fans in Japan for another reason, however. Quite have tried the bar have said that it's so much like biting into a slab of butter itself, they've substituted it for actual butter in dishes like pancakes, butter coffee, and even ramen.

Curious as to how an ice cream that's supposed to be just like butter could work as butter, we decided to try out a few popular recommendations in Japan. The first was using the ice cream bar in coffee. Butter coffee has become a trendy way to start mornings for coffee drinkers, citing its benefits for weight loss, brain stimulation, and simply adding a layer of flavor to a standard cup of joe.

The weight loss aspect may not fit in with a buttery ice cream bar, but dropping in a chunk into a cup of coffee, we noticed it melted instantly and mixed in very well.

Butter ice cream coffee

This ended up being quite the natural fit. The ice cream added a mild and rewarding sweetness to the coffee, but the distinct butter flavor of bar was still present, making the end result a dessert-like butter ice cream latte.

Instant ramen has also been a popularly suggested partner for the buttery ice cream bar, so we tried out two flavors, the first of which was Nissin's Smoky and Spicy Sio Cup Noodle.

Butter ice cream salty and smoky Cup Noodle ramen

This Cup Noodle flavor is known for its smoky and savory flavor, defined by a soup made from chicken, herbs, and seasoned with olive oil and black pepper. It also contains chicken, potatoes, eggs, red pepper, cabbage, and green onions--which seems inviting to butter enough already, but ice cream?

We dropped another chunk of the bar into a piping hot cup of the ramen, and then drizzled the smoky olive oil packet on top of it to make sure we got a true mix of flavor. As it turned out, the ice cream butter bar added just the right amount of sweetness without upsetting the smoky and salty flavor of the ramen broth, and also added a thick creamy layer to the noodles themselves.

You'd actually never think ice cream was added to begin with.

When it comes to miso ramen, especially in Hokkaido, there are very few more welcome toppings than a thick slab of creamy butter to give the broth that extra level of richness, so that was our third and final experiment in the butter ice cream laboratory.

Butter ice cream miso Cup Noodle Ramen

Once again, we readied a hot cup of Nissin's classic Miso Cup Noodle, which has a broth made of three different types of miso accented by garlic and ginger. Toppings for the ramen include corn chunks, cabbage, carrots, green onions, and Nissin's now revealed mystery meat.

As you can see, we didn't skimp on the addition with an extra hearty slice of butter ice cream. After all, miso ramen and butter were made for each other. Hopefully ice cream as well!

This ended up being our favorite of the three combinations we tried. It may be the natural affinity that miso ramen broth and butter as a topping have, but the complex miso soup really welcomed rich buttery taste of the bar, with a slightly sweet finish that made it even more drinkable. Again, the noodles seamed to absorb a creamy layer, making them seem a bit more like pasta noodles than ramen for an interesting twist.

If you're in Japan and can still find kajiru batā aisu at your convenience store's ice cream section, you may just want want to pick up some coffee, pancakes, or even ramen to go with it!