Adults can indulge in a coffee or alcoholic beverage paired with soft serve ice cream at this new oasis of calm in the city.
Snow Salt Soft Cream Cafe & Bar is a new soft serve ice cream brand from the Hokkaido-based company Daruma that’s said to use an exquisite blend of milk and salt in its base. The shop is only a five-minute walk from the Hirokoji Exit of JR Ueno Station in a quiet neighborhood that’s in the exact opposite direction of the noisy Ameyoko shopping street.
Never ones to resist a sweet treat for grown-ups, we set our sights on checking it out as soon as we could. We ended up visiting on a weekday less than a week after its grand opening, and lovely celebratory bouquets of orchids and other flowers still graced its entrance.
The soft serve utilizes milk from Hokkaido’s Iwase Farm and salt sourced from Okinawa–two ingredients from extreme ends of the country. The heart of the food menu centers on soft serve dishes, including the standard “Snow Salt” soft serve, “Snow on Snow” soft serve combo with chunks of milk bread, espresso affogato, Hokkaido yogurt affogato, and whiskey affogato. Beverages include coffee or espresso-based drinks as well as ones with alcohol such as highballs.
After ordering, we took a moment to look around. While we initially thought that the shop emphasized takeout, upon closer inspection, we soon realized that there was a third-floor Picture Book Lounge where customers could sit down and eat. The space is perfect for people wanting to take a quiet moment for themselves while flipping through the pages of a nostalgic childhood tale.
After a short wait, our order of iced coffee (480 yen [US$3.15]) and espresso affogato (780 yen) arrived. We had debated getting the coffee when we were already getting espresso along with the dessert, but our craving for it won us over. Oh well–it’s not like our office isn’t familiar with overly caffeinated writers who get up to weird antics…
We resolved to first try a bite of the famous Snow Salt soft serve with nothing else added.
The soft serve’s milk flavor was rich and full-bodied with a decent weight to it, despite it melting easily in our mouths. The hint of added salt also balanced out the sweetness perfectly.
OK, now it was time to make the affogato. We drizzled some espresso on top and watched as the hot liquid forged small rivers in the soft serve.
The dish had an amazing synergy. The espresso naturally added bitterness to the flavor, which in turn actually caused the sweetness to stand out more, but not at the loss of the former. We imagine that the whiskey affogato would result in a similarly delicious effect.
While the hustle and bustle of other parts of Ueno are undoubtedly fun, Snow Salt creates a quiet, relaxing space for you to pair an adult snack with a nostalgic picture book. Daruma’s Tokyo Office is also located on the 4th floor of the same building, making the space into a family affair.
If your idea of sweets is something more along the line of Japanese-style pudding, you may be interested in finding your oasis at this cafe in another part of the city instead.
Shop information
Snow Salt / スノーソルト
Address: Tokyo-to, Taito-ku, Higashiueno 2-13-2 Snow Salt Building
東京都台東区東上野 2丁目13-2 SNOW SALT BUILDING
Open 11 a.m.-11 p.m.
Website
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