Since a picture was leaked online last week, Japan has been all abuzz with rumors of the latest in the “rich” flavor line up of popular Garigari-kun brand popsicles. Their previous corn potage flavor was deemed a rousing success and now it appeared they were topping themselves this with a potato stew version.

The good news is a release date has been set for 29 October. The even better news is that we already got to take some Garigari-kun Potato Stew bars for a test taste at a presentation in Tokyo two weeks early!

When our reporter arrived at the Garigari-kun unveiling, a display for Aunt Claire stew with a package just like you’d find at a supermarket was presented. Things were looking up. Not only was this a specialty flavor but Garigari-kun was teaming up with Glico’s popular brand of stews.

■ Garigari-kun Stew

First our reporter sampled a bar of Garigari-kun Stew straight. The texture was similar to a regular soda-flavored ice pop of the same name. The outside was a little hard but after biting through you are hit with a slushy and juicy goodness. This was no different, but the outer layer had a milky taste and the inside was like a sweet stew-flavored snow cone… and pieces of potato!

■ The stew flavor is dead-on

The Garigari-Kun Stew’s flavoring is so authentic it can even be cut up and served atop a bowl of rice. The result was fantastic as the warm rice melted the chunks of stew flavored ice in the mouth gently spreading the flavor throughout.

As an added bonus, as the rest of the bar melts on top of the rice, your meal transforms itself into dessert! The rice and melted ice snack becomes a kind of rice pudding opening up a whole other dimension of taste.

■ Not sweet potato, but a potato which is sweet

Even picking out the pieces of potato is a delicious treat. It’s only regular potato, but it’s been saturated with ice candy and stewy sweetness that we’d call it sweet potato if there weren’t already a vegetable with that name.

In spite of all the ways to eat Garigari-kun Stew, the one thing our reporter wanted to do was just take a bar and melt the whole thing down in a stove. Then toss in some more vegetables and see if it can pass as an actual stew. Unfortunately that will have to wait until the end of the month when they hit the streets.

Original Article by Nakano
Photos: RocketNews24

▼ It’s really stew flavored.

▼ Made with the great taste of Aunt Claire’s Stew

▼ First just a plain bar

▼ Some actual stew was also on hand so we could compare

▼ Next, we cut up some Garigari-kun Stew

▼ And add to rice

▼ Eating the potato alone is fun too

[ Read in Japanese ]