Ice-no-Mi (frozen fruit & dairy balls!) - H-Mart: Cherry Hill, NJ
Ice-no-Mi (frozen fruit & dairy balls!)- H-Mart: Cherry Hill, NJ
It's kind of like giant Dippin' Dots, right? They're frozen ice cream/sorbet ...balls? (I am a mature adult!)
First, let's check out this amazing commercial for Ice no Mi with Kyary Pamyu Pamyu!
I freaking love it! There's tons of color, CGI, and fruit-related outfits. It makes sense, and yet, it doesn't. Oh, Japan. Never change. There's another more awkward commercial with her too and, not to be out done, AKB48 has their own commercial as well. Okay, enough pop stars. On to the real review!
Our little ice balls (pft) are inside a handy dandy plastic package that's the perfect size for a single serving. As far as form and function, it's just a heat-sealed plastic bag, which is nothing new, but it's design is very simple and refreshing. Sure the background image is a bit busy, but the information on the front of the package is straight and to the point. You get 12-balls (pft), they're made with 80% fruit concentrate, and they're orange flavored. It's informative, easy to understand, and I love all the food related images. Plus, the package has two opening options. The smaller of the two allows you to eat on the go by putting the balls right into your mouth...(Yeah. I typed that. That was a thing that happened.) While the larger opening is more spoon-friendly.
Okay, let's open this thing up and see what's inside!
Aw man, it looks like my balls got a little...sweaty? (Okay, okay, I'll stop.) There was a big misshapen ice-blob at the bottom of my package, so it looks like the heat got to these before they were refrozen, but I still had a few intact..."spheres." I'm going to refer to them as spheres now to tempt myself less.
The spheres are no where near as perfect as they look on the packaging, but I pretty much expected that. I live in New Jersey, so the items that eventually make their way to my local H-mart and Asian Food Market go on quite the journey, and due to it's travels (which also included a steamy car ride home in the Jersey Humidity) I knew it would be a little worse for wear. (Although the image on the package looks too perfect. Do they ever really look like that?)
I picked up one of the "spheres" and popped it into my mouth. The texture was a bit icy/crystallized, but I'm not sure if that's it's normal or if that's from the re-freezing and melting process. Either way, it was really refreshing and perfect for summer. You start out with a tangy orange juice concentrate flavoring but, since these have a skim milk powder in them, there's a creamy vanilla after taste. These are pretty much a giant Dippin' Dots version of Orange Creamsicle.
As far as the product's taste, I feel like it's pretty generic. There are a lot of products on the market that are really similar. What you're really paying for here is the ice-sphere gimmick and being able to eat on-the-go without a messy popsicle stick or spoons. It's a neat concept, and I enjoyed the product, but it's not really new or innovative. It's fun for what it is, and I'd love to try other flavors like peach or matcha(which are not as common here in America), but the orange flavor is too generic for me to repurchase.
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