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This Tokyo café is serving ice cream topped with natto. Would you try it?

Café au Lait Tokyo is offering coffee-flavoured ice cream with Japan’s famously pungent fermented soybeans

Written by
Dina Kartit
Café au Lait Tokyo
Photo: Café au Lait Tokyo; design by Zineb Bektachi
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If you're keen to try some of the uniquely Japanese ice cream flavours such as sesame, sake and hojicha, you might want to add Café au Lait Tokyo to your list. This café and restaurant in Takadanobaba has launched a new dessert option: café-au-lait-flavoured ice cream topped with natto.

Natto ice cream
Photo: Café au Lait Tokyo

This base for this unusual creation seems pretty standard as Turkish coffee is used to make the café au lait ice cream. Then it gets a little interesting: the ice cream is garnished with coffee beans and natto (fermented soybeans) mixed in soy sauce, and finished with whipped cream, nuts and kuromitsu (Japan’s answer to molasses). 

Café au Lait Tokyo
Photo: Café au Lait Tokyo

Despite natto’s reputation for being pungent, the dessert smells rather pleasant, thanks to the soy sauce seasoning. The ice cream pairs well with the bitter coffee beans and salty fermented soybeans that resemble chocolate chips.

Café au Lait Tokyo
Photo: Café au Lait TokyoBubble tea-style iced coffee with black natto. Not available.

The shop’s idea to pair natto and coffee came about last year, specifically on July 10, which is Natto Day. Initially, the café staff tried adding hot coffee to natto beans, making a kakigori shaved ice dessert with natto, and even a bubble tea-style iced coffee with natto in place of boba. 

If all those other concepts sound intriguing to you, we have some bad news. After all the testing, Café au Lait opted to put only its natto-topped ice cream on the menu, ready for the hot and humid summer.

The natto ice cream at Café au Lait Tokyo costs ¥420 and is only available until July 25.

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