“Kaki-Gori” is a Japanese summer dessert, which is made of shaved ice. There is shaved ice and sweet sauce on top-this is a basic structure. The ice is so soft and fluffy because it is shaved by a special machine. There are many kinds of Kaki-Gori machine, which has different performance. The best one can make extremely soft and tender shaved ice. These traditional desserts have now evolved into luxurious ones.
** The traditional shaved ice** Originally, there were two types of Kaki-Gori before. One is a cheap vendor dessert sold at a local street festival or the beach house.
Original shaved ice at vendor.
*Another traditional shaved ice. Uji(=Macha)-Kintoki(=Anko) gori. *
This is the sigh of serving shaved ice, “Ko-ri”, meaning ice. You see it at the front of cafe.
In spite of the fact that this kind of sauce is called strawberry, melon, etc, it doesn’t contain any fruit ingredients. It’s just a food color. Red is strawberry, Yellow is pineapple, green is melon, blue is…what? I don’t know. It is called “Blue Hawaii” or something. There is no smell or taste of fruit. No one expects authenticity from it because it is just a cheap and casual street dessert. But it was good for midsummer. The price range is from ¥200〜¥400. Another traditional Kaki-Gori is the one served at traditional Japanese dessert cafes. The flavor of them is Japanese traditional ingredients, like Macha sauce, Anko (sweet bean paste), and Mochi(white rice ball). The price range is from ¥700~¥1200.
Shaved ice of the 21st century that has evolved
Then, a new evolutionary shaved ice appeared. The story started when a new shaved ice cafe opened in 2003. This is 埜庵（Noan）, located at Kugenuma beach in Kanagawa pref. This cafe was novel in two respects: open throughout the year(not only in summer) and the price of it was very high as shaved ice at that time. Additionally, this shaved ice is made of natural ice in the mountain. The natural ice for shaved ice is inspected and guaranteed by the authorities to be sterile and safe, of course. This was the reason the owner decided to do the business. It tasted quite shocking and extremely delicious for him. Despite that no one expected this business could succeed at the beginning, in fact, it did very much. In front of the cafe, there is always a long queue of waiting customers, even in winter! Not only is the taste of natural shaved ice itself, but the sauce is also great. That is another reason for big success. The sauce is made of extremely high-quality fruits such as summer strawberries which have been grown in special order by this cafe. That’s the reason the price is very high regarding shaved ice.
Since then many luxurious shaved ice cafes appeared everywhere in Japan, which are characterized by rich fruit sauce and tasty and fluffy shaved ice, and big size. Moreover, the sauce and topping have evolved: they are using every kind of tasty thing such as chocolate, fresh cream, ice cream, macaron, cookies, etc. It’s like a parfait. When searching, go to the page of shaved ice news (the language is Japanese…though, sorry), or put the search term ”かき氷” on google.
Himitsudo is another famous cafe in Tokyo whose owner admires Noan and tried to make an unprecedented shaved ice cafe. They serve shaved ice and hot granite from November to before summer.
By the way, 氷＝Ko-ri. But go-ri is also meaning the same. It’s just a pronunciation matter. When you put “kaki” on top of ko-ri, the pronunciation becomes “go-ri”. Kaki-gori is easy to pronounce than kaki-kori.