Any macaron lovers here? If you are a big fan of macarons, you might want to check this place out. A bakery that makes bread and deliciously cute looking macarons. This macarons bakery is called Mayowazu Zokkon.
Mayowazu Zokkon
I made this a side note because this is not an Ibaraki original. I am not sure where it started but there are a lot of Zokkons around Japan. In Ibaraki, there are two: one in Mito and one in Hitachi.
My wife and I visited the one in Mito which is in the Kasaharacho area. The bakery is surrounded by on display houses for people looking to buy a house. You can't miss it, the bakery is completely pink and there is a huge sign of a prince looking anime character holding an anime loaf of bread character. The Mito bakery is only an order window so everything is take out. There are only two choices: bread and macarons.
The Menu
That is a lot of macarons. There are a bunch of different flavors to choose from. Coffee cream, cookies and cream, strawberry latte cream, matcha, caramel and roast cookie, vanilla and Nutella chocolate, and the list goes on and on. Unfortunately, the macarons menu is only in Japanese. I did not see an English menu.
This is a bakery so you can also ordered a full loaf or half loaf of bread.
Regular Half Loaf
There are two choices in the bread section. The white loaf bread called Mayowazu Kuchi Zuke, which I think means "kiss without hesitation." Or you can get the raisin loaf simply called "princesses raisins."
We went for half a loaf of the regular white bread. It wasn't great, but not bad. Highly recommend toasting it and getting some melted butter on it. But the macarons are where it's at.
Cheese Monster
For all the cheese lovers out there, this is the macaron for you. It has cheddar cheese, cream cheese, and cheese crackers in it. For some, this might be weird for a macaron, but for me, it was fantastic. If you have read my blog thus far, you know I love cheese. So this macaron was right up my alley. The soft creamy cheese stacked together with the delicious cheese crackers was heavenly. I will be having this macaron again, no debate about that.
Peanut Butter
My wife had trouble eating this macaron. She said it was really cute and didn't want to ruin the face. I took the first bite and she frowned. I had destroyed that cute looking face in search of it's flavor. And what a delicious flavor it was. Like having a peanut butter cookie but way more creamy. This macaron was pretty good, even if I destroyed that cute dog (dog?) face.
Pink Bear
This cute looking macaron is filled with strawberry latte cream. My wife had a hard time eating this macaron because of the whole cute face thing again. Her exact words were "it's really cute, I don't want to ruin it." So I had to be the bad guy, again, and take the first bite. This bear was delicious. Very strong flavor of strawberry and just overall tasty.
Cookie Monster
From the picture you can tell why this macaron is called "cookie monster." Inside the macaron you got Oreo cream filling and strawberry jam. Do they work well together? Yes, amazingly yes. This was one of my favorite macarons and I honestly could have bought five more of these cookie monsters. The slightly hard outside with that creamy Oreo flavor and surprising strawberry jam was an amazing mixture. If you decide to give this bakery a try, make sure to grab this cookie monster. You won't be disappointed.
The Ibaraki Eats Duo enjoyed all the macarons we bought and the bread was pretty good as well. I hope we can go back soon. We still have a lot of macarons to try.
So if you are in Mito and are looking for some amazing macarons to try, why not give Mayowazu Zokkon a chance. Who knows, you might see me there, buying up the whole menu of macarons to take home.
Enjoy!
For more information, check out Mayowazu Zokkon's website:
One more thing!
For coffee and whiskey lovers!
Last weekend, I was at the Village Market in Tsukuba getting my morning coffee from one of my favorite coffee people, Micro Farm Family. While deciding what flavor coffee I would be having that morning, a new brand caught my eye and was calling out to me. It was saying that this would be my coffee for that morning and the rest of the week. The lovely people at micro farm let me smell the beans first before buying. I got a fragrance of delicious smelling coffee and whiskey. I love whiskey so this was a clear winner. I ordered a cup, tried it, and instantly fell in love. The whiskey flavor wasn't overpowering, but it had a strong presence and went really well with the coffee.
I ended up buying a bag of grounded beans and been having this coffee every morning this week. I highly recommend you give this coffee a try at Village Market Tsukuba this Sunday at Oshimizu Park. If you are worried you can't drive after you have a cup, let me put your worries to rest. There isn't any alcohol in the coffee so you can still drive. Hope to see you at the market!
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