Monday 36 degrees, Tuesday 37 degrees, Wednesday 38 degrees! This summer is insanely hot. Everyone here in Ibaraki needs to stay cool. Use your AC, go to a café with AC, go to a pool, go to the beach, drink plenty of water. So many ways to stay cool but I usually want a delicious fun way to stay cool during summer. There is only one choice in that matter, kakigori or shaved ice. What's a good place to get some deliciously cool kakigori? Tsuchiura's very own Miraikori Cafe.
Miraikori Cafe
Miraikori Café or Future Ice Café in English, is a very short walk away from Tsuchiura station's west exit. It is right across from the Tsuchiura Public Library. You could drive here but Miraikori doesn't have a parking lot. There are parking lots around the café, but you have to pay an hourly rate at those lots. By the way, for all my Tsukuba people, Miraikori Café does have a food car that goes to Tsukuba on certain days of the week. They usually announce when they are going to Tsukuba on their Instagram page which I will post the link to below.
On a very hot Tuesday afternoon in July, the Ibaraki Eats Duo was looking for a way to cool down and have something sweet. We wanted kakigori and by god we were getting kakigori.
Inside
The café is really small place. I want to say that it can fit up to eight customers max. There are a lot of interesting things on the walls, especially old music records. The café has that small coffee café vibe to it, but it is a kakigori place through and through.
The Menu
The menu has 5 different main sweets. Kakigori, crepes, pancake parfaits, tapioca, and pancakes. Most of the flavors for everything are chocolate, strawberry, caramel, mango, and a lot of other delicious fruit flavors you can think of.
If you order kakigori, it might become a bit difficult. You have to look up at the cashier area where all the kakigori flavors are, and order from there.
Kakigori Flavors
From right to left here are the flavors, there is miracle lemon (no idea what that means), sujiri zanmai (it is an all star tea kakigori, I think), grape fruit orange, black sugar kinako (typical Japanese flavor), matcha milk rich, pine yogurt, caramel macchiato, ume and akashiso (sour plum), mango milk granola, and finally coffee cream.
Pancake Parfait
I know this is mainly a post about kakigori but I need to talk about this parfait. First off, if you decide to visit Miraikori, order this. It is only 500 yen, and it is probably the best dessert I have had so far this year. What genius this is! Cut a delicious pancake into small slices, add a lot of whipped cream with caramel (you can order chocolate or strawberry), put two sticks of chocolate for looks, and since it is a parfait, corn chips on the bottom. This small cup of what I can only describe as pancake whipped cream bliss is truly a work of a genius. Thank you Miraikori for making this amazing dessert.
I should also mention, I have had Miraikori's pancake dish before many years ago and I loved it. But unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of it and I haven't had it recently.
Matcha Cream Kakigori
Look at that mountain of kakigori, glorious. My wife and I had separate spoons and got to work. I love matcha so this flavor suited me just fine. The cream on top of the kakigori was really thick and delicious. Mix that cream with cold matcha kakigori and you have a match made in heaven. My wife had the occasional brain freeze, but she loved every spoonful of kakigori. After being out in the hot Tsuchiura street, this was the perfect dessert to cool us down. Both of us are planning to come back to Miraikori to try their other flavors, before the summer is over.
This was a really nice treat for a hot summer day, and the pancake parfait was a dessert gift from the gods. I loved that parfait and am definitely getting it again. See you later on this summer Miraikori.
So if you are around the Tsuchiura station area and are looking for something delicious to cool you down, why not give Miraikori Café a chance. Who knows, you might see me there, with a cup of pancake parfait to go and a kakigori to cool down with.
Enjoy!
For more information on Miraikori Café, check out their Instagram page:
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