Fun Flavours

Okay, so there are some interesting flavours going on in Japanese cuisine. For the most part I'm a bit immune to them as I try to stay away from anything that might be fishy and end up being overly cautious.

Today takes the cake though. I went to Starbuck in search of something cold and refreshing and came out with the flavour of the month - Azuki bean. Long gone are the cinnamon, java chip and banana frappuccinos from months past. Nope, I think this must be unique to Japan. It's a red bean frappuccinos, with, in all seriousness, little bits of red bean blended into the drink. It's very odd indeed.

Normally I quite like azuki bean. Normally the are used to make a sweet bean paste that is a popular filling in pastries, mochi, taiyaki and mixed with rice making sweet rice balls. But this one is not sweetened with anything and makes for a weird flavour for a cold, normally sweet drink. I love little Japanese confection that is like a slim perogy with a cinnamon mochi (or sticky rice) wrapper with azuki past inside. It's delicate and tasty. I know that in general Japanese people prefer tastes that are not overly sweet (for proof just taste the difference between Ocean Spray cranberry juice here and in North America) however this is taking that favourite flavour a little to far in my opinion.

Just another example of how on the outside things look the same here but when you get right down to it there's a fundamental difference...