On November 15, Akagi Milk Industry Co., Ltd. released "Japan's First Self-Crushing Chocolate Ice Cream" (160 ml, 162 yen including tax), an ice cream product that can be crushed by rubbing the chocolate to your desired size. Choco Mint Self Chocolate Crush" (160ml, 162 yen including tax) was released nationwide in limited quantities.
While conventional chocolate mint ice cream is "ice cream eaten as is" with the crispy texture of chocolate and mint flavor, this new product is "ice cream that can be customized and eaten" by rubbing the 5 mm thick chocolate coated on the sides of the cup with both hands from the outside of the cup, crushing it, and mixing it with the mint ice cream. The new product is "customizable ice cream".
Compared to the existing Akagi Milk Industry "Choco Mint (cup)", the chocolate is approximately 5 times thicker and the total amount of chocolate is 1.7 times greater. The new product is "a chocolate mint ice cream with plenty of chocolate that even those who are not fond of the mint taste can easily try" (Akagi Milk Industry).
The development was motivated by the desire to "deliver an exciting surprise in an age when people want to share experiences with others" (Yasuhiro Kageyama, manager of the Marketing Department, Development & Marketing Division, Akagi Milk Industry). The process is based on the idea of making the chocolate crispy. The manufacturing process was designed to maintain the crispiness of the chocolate, and the thickness and hardness of the chocolate were also carefully considered so that the chocolate would break up moderately when the cups were rubbed by hand.
At the new product launch event held in Tokyo on November 7, three members of the comedian group Jungle Pocket took the stage and cheered the "new experience" of ice cream that allows users to change the size of the chocolate to their own liking, commenting, "Interesting! They said, "You can enjoy it in three different ways by rubbing the cup and changing the size.