Recently, my husband and I “enjoyed” both flavors of Haagen-Dazs’s new Spoon Vege ice cream, which went on sale in Japan on May 12.
The first flavor we tried was Carrot-Orange (キャロットオレンジ), which we determined likely to be the less horrible of the two.
Nice color! Looks like sherbert.
The taste was like a modified orange, like a kind of mango or something. It wasn’t bad at all…until the aftertaste hit.
BITTER. So bitter. The aftertaste was like licking earwax. Are carrots bitter??
I washed it down with this: Kirin’s Kajitsu to Peel no Osake (果実とピールのお酒／Fruit Juice and Peel Alcohol), a canned vodka cocktail made with acerola fruit juice and orange peel. It was nice and fruity, and also got me a bit buzzed, so that I could get up the courage to try…
…Tomato-Cherry (トマトチェリー). Come on. There’s no way anyone thought this could possibly taste good.
That color sure is…interesting.
While Carrot-Orange didn’t taste much like carrot, Tomato-Cherry’s taste was undeniably tomato. Tomato and cream. It was like a tomato latte, with a shot of grenadine. Yeah.
Why even make these flavors, anyway? It’s not like they’re good for you. They still both had 200-some calories (Tomato-Cherry had 216 and Carrot-Orange had 206; a mini cup of the divine Caramel Crush [キャラメルクラッシュ] has 262 calories). The main ingredient of both of them was still “cream.”
I understand Gari-Gari Kun (ガリガリ君) making spaghetti and stew flavored popsicles as gag/cult items, but come on, Haagen-Dazs. Your products cost almost 3 times what Gari-Gari Kun’s do. You’re supposed to be better than that.
If you’d like to try Spoon Vege for yourself for some reason, check out your local conbini or supermarket.
Pigeons of Osaka 
Or you could just buy a carrot for 39 yen.
I would try it, Nice analogy, but maybe … “it would depend on WHO’s ear wax” : )
Or we could just stay away from processed foods, especially when the flavours sound a bit dodgy 🙂