Under-the-radar Japanese cafe chain serves a delicious salute to Ditto in celebration of Pokémon Pokopia.

When overseas tourists want a relaxed cafe experience in Japan, they tend to flock to familiar chains like Starbucks, but for locals, there’s an iconic Japanese-born chain that some might say is even better.

The name of that chain is Komeda Coffee, and not only does it serve up great coffee in comfortable surroundings, it also has sizeable meals and impressive desserts, and now, for a limited time, a Pokémon collaboration menu.

▼ The collaboration is set to drop in two parts, with the first lot appearing on 5 March.

The new campaign is called “Pokémon to Isshodamon“, which translates as “Together with Pokémon” while incorporating a punny rhyming wordplay on the word “Metamon“, or Ditto, to use the character’s English name.

▼ As you might expect, Ditto is the star of the show here, appearing on three different menu items.

With the Katsu Bread and Shiro Noir dessert being menu mainstays, only with a Ditto makeover for this special collaboration, we were curious to try the Metamon Sweet Potato Balls, which we’d never seen before.

▼ These balls are priced at 1,080 yen (US$6.85).

Served in a cute Metamon-patterned cup, this half-dozen cluster incorporates purple sweet potato in the dough to emulate Ditto’s purple hue.

▼ Kind of like a doughnut, but lighter.

The outside is delightfully crispy and chewy, while the inside is filled with a smooth and creamy sweet potato paste. The dough itself wasn’t particularly sweet, but this allowed the natural sweetness of the paste inside to sing, creating a well-balanced sweet that was incredibly easy to eat.

▼ Despite being delicious, the balls are quite dense so you’ll want to order a drink like the Blueberry Yoghurt frappe (660 yen) to wash them down.

As an added bonus, every customer who purchases a Ditto meal will receive a Pokémon bean snack keychain, which mimics the look of Komeda Coffee’s little bean snacks, which come free with every drink order.

▼ There are four designs available, and we received the one with Bulbasaur and Ditto.

With each meal costing over 1,000 yen, we initially thought this was an expensive collaboration, but after receiving the free keychain, which we figured would be worth at least 300 yen, we walked away happy.

▼ Our plushie companions left happy too.

Another highlight of the campaign is the “Mini Daruma Glass-Style Accessory Holder” (2,000 yen), which takes the chain’s popular rotund container and gives it a Ditto makeover.

▼ This limited-edition product has become so sought after it’s already sold out at a lot of stores.

With Ditto taking centre stage in Nintendo Switch’s new Pokémon Pokopia game released on 5 March, this salute from Komeda is a nice way to tie in with the celebrations. While it’s only a limited-time affair, the good news is the celebrations are set to continue, with Part 2 coming to Komeda stores around Japan from 9 April.

Related: Komeda Coffee
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[ Read in Japanese ]