Kimuraya Red Bean Bun: This small but popular bakery is right near the Ginza metro station, offering a variety of Japanese / french breads and pastries. Their speciality appears to be inexpensive miniature buns that cost 150¥, under $1.50; sized like dinner rolls and coated in amaranth, its shell is slightly browned and overall tastes largely neutral in flavor with red bean filling (they also offer different types of fillings). Overall, it's more like sustenance than something to be enjoyed, given its inexpensiv... (read more) 3.0/5.0
japanese ginza bakery kimuraya red bean bun 3.0
Wei-Chuan red bean and jelly popsicle: Icy bar studded with red beans and slivers of green jelly. Jelly adds an intriguing texture but is mostly flavorless. Pop as a whole is in the sweet side. 2.5/5.0
hmart asian chinese weichuan red bean jelly popsicle 2.5
Chimei red bean buns: Made in Taiwan, these frozen buns are light in sugar, at 3g per bun. Once they are steamed past a particular threshold (㸐 minutes), though, the dough tightens up, wrinkling and hardening almost like it was under a vacuum. If anyone knows scientifically what causes this phenomena, I'd very much like to know. That is the most interesting thing about this frozen product, which is pretty average flavor-wise. 2.5/5.0
chimei frozenbuns redbeanbun buns hmart 2.5 red bean
iTea Matcha milk tea with boba and red bean: This matcha drink from iTea in SF contains red bean and boba as default toppings. While the matcha milk tea was decent, the red bean was heavily sweetened so that this 30% sweetness beverage tasted more like a normal 100% sweetened drink. Texturally, the red bean also seemed canned as it was slightly too soft. As a result, I’d recommend getting the drink but skipping the red bean topping. 2.5/5.0
drinks sf milktea itea matcha milk tea boba red bean 2.5 bubbletea
Yogurt Pump Red Raspberry Frozen Yogurt: During my visit to Chapel Hill, I tried to seek out local ice cream shops and found the independently-owned Yogurt Pump among Ben and Jerry's and Coldstone Creamery. On offer was about 8 different flavors, ranging from salted caramel to red velvet cake. After sampling the strawberry lemonade (which was extremely sweet), I asked what the least sweet options were, to which the response was Vanilla or Oreo. That was worrisome. But I ultimately decided to order a small serving of the red ras... (read more) 2.5/5.0
froyo chapelhill yogurtpump red raspberry frozen yogurt 2.5