*One of them actually sacrificed the “ice cream” designation to be more powerfully minty.

Mint chocolate, or “choco mint” as it’s inversely known in Japan, is still a relatively new flavor on the mainstream snack scene. It’s only been able to seriously catch on in recent years among the younger generations, who don’t instantly liken it to the taste of toothpaste.

Meanwhile, our star reporter Mr. Sato, is no such youngster and has a hard time stomaching anything mint chocolate flavor, despite his incredible penchant for sweets.

It’s not so much that it tastes just like toothpaste to him; rather, it’s the lingering aftertaste of the mint that overstays its welcome on his palate, much like toothpaste sometimes does.

Despite this, when he heard of a new line of mint chocolate ice cream making waves on social media, he felt oddly compelled to try it. It was released last June by lifestyle brand Muji and is said to be so refreshingly minty it could be used as a bath salt.

This seemed way beyond what our mint-chocolate-novice report could handle, but with a description like that, morbid curiosity got the better of him, and he headed out to his nearest Muji to try some.

Despite its popularity, Muji was well-stocked with their two varieties of dessert, Mint Chocolate Chip Frozen Dessert and Cool Mint & Chocolate Chip Frozen Dessert for 320 yen (US$2) each.

And because Mr. Sato lacked experience in the mint chocolate game, he also got a standard Choco Mint Super Cup from the convenience store for 200 yen ($1.30).

Looking under the hood at each dessert, the Super Cup was decidedly pale-looking. It could have been frost from being over-frozen or just the lighting, but this was the color of mint chocolate that our writer was raised on.

Muji’s Mint Chocolate Chip was a decidedly deeper blue. This looked like a serious mint taste, but the chocolate chips mixed throughout looked like a good balance.

However, Muji’s Cool Mint & Chocolate Chip was on a whole other level from that! The deep blue tone signified a level of mint that Mr. Sato couldn’t even comprehend.

If this were a role-playing game, the Super Cup would be a low-level slime or other monster that offers rock-bottom XP, the Mint Chocolate Chip would be a dungeon boss, and the Cool Mint & Chocolate would be a monster so strong it wouldn’t even be a part of the main story and only challenged by those looking for 100-percent completion.

In terms of taste, the Super Cup had a tacked-on-feeling mint flavor that hung around way too long in our reporter’s mouth. It was the mint chocolate that he’s come to know thus far and never developed a liking to.

However, after eating the Mint Chocolate Chip from Muji, his impression of mint chocolate changed slightly. The mint taste was firmly there, but it washed away cleanly and didn’t pollute his mouth afterward. He felt that this was what mint chocolate should be like, and he could potentially get used to it after a while.

The Cool Mint & Chocolate Chip lived right up to its imposing appearance. Mr. Sato felt wave after wave of refreshing mint flavor wash over him. It was as if this mythical beast were casting whirlwind spells against his woefully under-leveled party.

That was far more mint than our writer was ever ready to handle. He had read that the flavor was a mixture of spearmint and peppermint, but that wasn’t the only thing that made it ultra-minty. Looking closely at the label on the cup, he noticed that Cool Mint & Chocolate Chip wasn’t even ice cream… It was ice milk!

▼ On the left, Mint Chocolate Chip Frozen Dessert is labeled as “ice cream” but on the right, Cool Mint & Chocolate Chip Frozen Dessert is classified as “ice milk.”

This meant that it had a lower fat content. The creamy sweetness of the fat would undoubtedly dilute the sheer power of the mint, so this dessert went as far as shedding its classification as an ice cream to deliver an even more potent blast of freshness.

It was far too much for Mr. Sato to handle, but he had to tip his straw hat to Muji for going all out. He’ll have to grind a lot more Super Cups to build up enough experience to try it again, but he highly recommends it to all the strong mint chocolate warriors out there.

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