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We try Japan's non-melting ice cream to see if it's for real

Kanazawa Ice's non-melting ice cream lasted longer under the hot Tokyo sun than I did.

Aloysius Low Senior Editor
Aloysius Low is a Senior Editor at CNET covering mobile and Asia. Based in Singapore, he loves playing Dota 2 when he can spare the time and is also the owner-minion of two adorable cats.
Aloysius Low

The sun ain't got nothing on this ice cream.

Aloysius Low/CNET

Standing outside in Tokyo's hot and humid summer weather waiting for a non-melting ice cream to melt is torture when all you want to do is cool down with a confectionery treat, but hey, it's for science. 

I was doing this silly thing to test the claims of Kanazawa Ice, who claim to sell ice cream that can stand in the sun for at least 10 minutes without melting

It's made with polyphenol liquid extracted from strawberries, which apparently makes it harder for the water and oil in the ice cream to separate, allowing the popsicle to retain its shape a lot longer. Determined to put this to the test, I popped by the Kanazawa Ice shop in Tokyo and got myself a chocolate flavored ice cream bear.

To my pleasant surprise, my ice cream bear was still surprisingly solid 10 minutes later, though the tiny ears at the top had somewhat melted. I was faring much worse in comparison, already sweating bucket loads and eager to gobble down the cool ice cream. Despite a slight glistening layer of melt on the top, the ice cream still felt cool.

Taste wise, the chocolate flavored bear was like every other chocolate flavored popsicle I've tried. There are also vanilla and mango flavours to try. 

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