Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo, is welcoming Häagen-Dazs through its doors who have prepared a very special dessert buffet for the hotel's "Summer Trip with Häagen-Dazs" service. The sweet treat line-up will be served from June 1 to September 30 along with a range of savoury foods from around the world - an inviting prospect to those unable to travel during the pandemic.

Sweets Collection with Häagen-Dazs ~Ice Cream Holic~ | General ¥4,800, Children (Aged 4-12)

The first entry to the Summer Trip with Häagen-Dazs is the "Sweets Collection with Häagen-Dazs ~Ice Cream Holic~" dessert buffet. To protect customers, all desserts are ordered and served like a course rather than going to pick up the food yourself. This marks the third year of the dessert buffet, and this time it's inspired by ice cream shops in New York, the home of Häagen-Dazs. Ice cream will be served in a cool and refreshing variety of ways.   Experience that feeling of picking out a flavour from the ice cream store with a line-up of eight flavours including classics such as vanilla and strawberry as well as the new rich royal milk tea. Each serving is customisable with numerous toppings.   Other menu items include mini ice cream croissants, ice cream sodas, ice cream cake, and more. There's also a line-up of savoury food too if you want to line your belly before dessert: fried chicken, burgers, hot dogs, fries, and so on.   While the buffet is on, the hotel restaurant itself will be transformed into an ice cream theme park with summery tropical fruit colouring as well as designs and decor inspired by ice creams and cones.

Häagen-Dazs Japan released two new ice cream flavours as part of its Decorations mini cup series on March 23: the Matcha Chocolate Cookie and Almond Caramel Cookie.   The visually-striking Häagen-Dazs Decorations series is a smooth, rich-flavoured ice cream with delicious toppings to compliment the ice cream.   For the third entry to Decorations, Häagen-Dazs welcomes back the Almond Caramel Cookie from 2019 and adds the all-new matcha and chocolate combo Matcha Chocolate Cookie.

Matcha Chocolate Cookie / Almond Caramel Cookie - ¥295 Each (Before Tax)

  Even more delicious after stirringThe best way to enjoy Decorations is to first spoon the ice cream as it is to taste the flavours. After that, you'll want to stir it all together to all the flavours and textures fuse, creating a delightful contrast between the soft ice cream and crunchy toppings.   Almond Caramel CookieAlmond Caramel Cookie takes inspiration from the Florentine biscuit which is a sweet pastry topped with nuts and fruits. The cup contains delicious caramel butterscotch ice cream laced with caramel sauce, all of which is topped off with crumbly sliced almonds and crunchy butter cookie pieces.   Matcha Chocolate CookieThe Matcha Chocolate Cookie is exactly what it says on the cup: a fragrant matcha ice cream infused with chocolate sauce and topped with sweet chocolate and matcha cookies.

Nana's Green Tea is serving up a brand-new dessert in collaboration with Häagen-Dazs for Valentine's Day at 77 branches in Japan. The dessert was released on January 6 and will be available up to February 14.

Matcha Chocolate Glass with Häagen-Dazs | ¥880 (Before Tax)

The dessert is a tempting sight to behold - not only is it delicious but visually appealing to the eye too, and layered with various textures so that every bite is a surprise. The dessert is made with Häagen-Dazs' "Sweet Chocolate" ice cream coupled with Nana's Green Tea's own original matcha ice cream, soft and crunchy meringue sticks, crumbled cookies, white chocolate whipped cream, and matcha chiffon cake. Sat at the bottom waiting to be discovered is a sweet strawberry sauce for a tangy kick.

Häagen-Dazs Japan is bringing back its Hana Mochi series of mini cup ice creams this year in two flavours: Chestnut Paste and Ginsen Soy Flour Brown Sugar Syrup, both of which will be released across Japan on September 29, 2020 for a limited time.   The Hana Mochi series takes Häagen-Dazs's smooth and rich ice creams and adds soft, chewy mochi to it. The Ginsen Soy Flour Brown Sugar Syrup was released last year and proved hugely popular, while the Chestnut Paste is a new mouth watering contender this time around. The Ginsen Soy Flour Brown Sugar Syrup ice cream is made using dark roasted soy flour and is mixed with brown sugar syrup before being topped with mochi and a blend of yellow and black soybeans. The new Chestnut Paste is a super sweet chestnut infusion and has an authentic Japanese wagashi confection taste to it. The ice cream is also laced with a chestnut sauce as well as salt to bring out the sweetness of the chestnut even more.   Both are the perfect flavours for autumn-time this year.

Häagen-Dazs Japan released its new "Honey Sweet Potato" flavour of mini cup ice cream on September 1, 2020. The ice cream is a combination of two types of potatoes with high sugar content. Roasted sweet potato is a popular food eaten in Japan during the autumn season. By roasting them slowly, you allow the natural sweetness of the sweet potatoes to come through, giving them that distinct autumn-time flavour. And it's these potatoes that are used to make Häagen-Dazs's new ice cream.  

Sweet and rich honey-loaded ice cream

Sweet potatoes are naturally very sweet and have a syrupy texture to them, something which has been recreated to make this ice cream. As you spoon the ice cream, the melty honey sauce laced throughout the ice cream trickles.  

Preserving the natural sweetness of the sweet potato

Roasting the sweet potatoes actually draws out their natural sweetness. Combined with Häagen-Dazs's full-bodied milk, they have created a rich and subtly sweet ice cream.  

Create your own Häagen-Dazs autumn recipe

Häagen-Dazs has also created a video using their vanilla flavour to showcase how to make your own ice cream dessert using pumpkin and cinnamon.

Häagen-Dazs held a vote with 300 male and female fans of the company to find out the most popular new products in Japan for the second half of 2019. The people chosen to cast their votes were between the ages of 10-60 years and had to eat Häagen-Dazs more than once a month. When asked which flavour they would eat again, the "Strawberry Brownie Parfait" mini cup came in at No. 1 with 15.7% of the votes. In second place as the "Fondant au Chocolat" with 14.8%, and in third place the "Midori ~Koicha~" green tea flavour with 10.5%, which was released to celebrate the company's 35th anniversary.  

"Strawberry Brownie Parfait" Mini Cup

Crumbled chocolate brownie is lumped into the rich, full-bodied vanilla custard ice cream, which is glazed over the top with drizzles of sweet and sour strawberry sauce. The three flavours mix together deliciously to create a parfait-like cup dessert.

"Fondant au Chocolat" Crispy Sandwich

Inside the crunchy chocolate biscuit is a rich and bitter dark chocolate ice cream. Sealed away sumptuously inside of the ice cream is a smooth melted chocolate sauce. Enjoy a luxury chocolate fondant in the form of a crispy sandwich, which is served in a gift box packaging.

"Midori ~Koicha~" 35th Anniversary Commemoration Release

Finally, to commemorate Häagen-Dazs Japan's 35th anniversary, they released this ice cream made from high quality tea leaves and full-bodied milk. The tea leaves in question are of the koicha variety, a rich green tea. These special leaves were cultivated and hand-picked specially for this release.  

  When comparing both male and female results, the two most popular choices for men were the "Fondant au Chocolat" and "Strawberry Brownie Parfait," while for women it was the "Midori ~Koicha~" and the "Strawberry Brownie Parfait."