Summer in Japan- Kakigouri

This is my second post in the Summer in Japan series. Today, I will be writing about a dessert that you eat in Japan to cool yourself down.

Picture of kakigori
By nesnad (Own work) [CC BY 3.0
 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

カキ氷(kakigori) is a Japanese dessert that is eaten in the summer. It is basically shaved ice with a sweet syrup and a sweetener (often condensed milk) It is similar to a snow cone but the main difference is that kakigori is similar to falling snow and you eat it with a spoon. You can use a machine to spin a block of ice over a ice shaving blade by hand. But you can also use an electric machine as well. It is sold everywhere in convinience stores in the summer as it cools you down. Kakigori from a convinience store is sold in a cup and is not sold in a cone in the picture.


Fun fact: Kakigori used to be a luxurious dessert. In the Heian period (11th century) nobles would shave the block of natural ice with a knife and eat it with a sweet tasting sap from a type of ivy, hydrangea or vine. In the Meiji period (19th century), kakigori became affordable to the public when a food entrepreneur succeeded in transporting ice from Hokkaido to Yokohama and made a kakigori shop in Bashamichi in Kanagawa in 1872.

The frozen dessert was popularized during the second half of the 19th century when it became accessible to the public.

Popular flavours

Popular flavours include

• Strawberry
• Lemon
• Green tea
• Melon
• Grape

Some shops sell it with ice cream or sweetened red beans or tapioca pearls

So if you are in Japan in the summer, be sure to try kakigori.

私は、カキ氷食べたことがありませんが、いつか食べてみたいと思います。

I have never tried kakigori but I would like to one day