00:00:00 John Daub: Hello everybody, welcome to our house. It's going to rain or it has been raining here in Tokyo. So today we have a challenge. Do you know what season it is, Kanae? It's spring. No, it's matcha season. What? Yes, that's right. And she lives here. She was born here. She doesn't even know. No, from about the middle of March to about the beginning of May, they harvest the first tea called shincha (new tea). And that first tea harvest is celebrated in a lot of confections that comes around the same time as the cherry blossoms.

00:01:30 John Daub: We're going to, here you can hold this one, we're going to unpackage, I'd say unbox, but that's not quite right, two melon pan (cookie-crusted sweet bun), this one coming from Lawson's. And this one is coming from Famima, FamilyMart. And 7-Eleven is disqualified because they didn't have a melon pan matcha flavor, which is weird. We're going to do this scientifically. We're actually going to cut these into pieces here. So it's going to be kind of a fun live stream. And we have a bonus if there's time. Crunchy melon pan like the mountains. And I can't figure it out. It's called yama mitaina melon pan (mountain-like melon pan). It's black Mont Blanc (chestnut cream cake). Black Mont Blanc. Like the mountains? Yama mitaina melon pan. Yeah, but why is the mountains in there? It's very confusing. It's black Mont Blanc. Yeah. It's said it's like black Mont Blanc melon pan. Like black Mont Blanc. And by the way, Ramsey Silent, here's our anniversary flowers. I appreciate that. Yesterday we went out to a dinner and had an amazing dinner. Thanks to you guys for that.

00:03:00 John Daub: All right. Let's unpackage this here. Do you like melon pan, Kanae? Yeah, I love it. I love melon pan. You love melon pan? Yeah. Yeah. So one of the best places is in our neighborhood here. But the thing is, I like melon pan when it's hot out of the oven. And you can see they put it in the oven and they're cranking out dozens of melon pan every single hour. I don't know how many they sell. A lot. This is right. It's like steaming hot into the oven. It's so warm. Crunchy top, sugary goodness. That's what a melon pan is supposed to be like. It is really pleasure in the mouth. And it's such a celebrated food here in Japan.

00:04:30 John Daub: Now, I was out with Brandy just a couple of days ago. It's in my mind because it's so darn good. I have to pull up the picture here. Oh, here it is. I'm bringing it up in right here. Boom. Right there. This is the melon pan with whipped cream. This is maybe the most delicious confection sweet in Japan. That's a bold statement. There's something amazing about this. It's got that cool whipped cream with that warm, right out of the oven toasted melon pan. All the flavors coming together and making it such a beautiful dish. It's also kind of a messy dish. You can see, of course, this is going to get all over us. And it did. It's from this shop called Asakusa Kagetsudo, which I featured in a video on the old channel like a long time ago. And you can see here just how disastrously messy it is. Poor Brandy's hands. Look at that. But that's okay. It's all going in the same place. It's all part of the experience. Maybe, you know what? We probably, I shouldn't have ripped it into two. I should have just kept it in the envelope. That's probably the secret. It's better with whipped cream than ice cream. Just thought I would mention that.

00:06:00 John Daub: All right. Without further ado, let's get into this here. Which one should we try first? What do you think here? The packaging is interesting. This says ochame. This is a melon pan. So this isn't Uji matcha, actually, is it? This is just a green tea melon pan. I don't know what the difference is going to be with the taste between matcha and tea because they still have to grind it down into a confection. Do you know what this is? This mountain? Where is that? It's Hasayama. Hasayama? Yeah. Okay. Kanae's going to figure out where that is. This is from Uji. This is the Famima one. And you can see it's got the matcha on it. It looks like a bicycle helmet, the design, but they have the whisking matcha on the corner of the package. It has 374 calories.

00:07:30 John Daub: Sayamashi. Where is that? It's Sayamashi. Sayama. Sayamashi. Sayama. Sayamashi is Saitama. Saitama. Saitama Prefecture. They made a tea. Okay. The melon pan used Sayama tea. Sayama tea. Sayama tea. Because it's Uji matcha, the price is 168 yen for this melon pan, and because they don't use Uji matcha, they can keep the price lower. This is 149 yen. So there's the price differences right there. This one is 374 calories. Kind of high. And this one is 359 calories. It's about the same. I think it's about the same. I mean, it tells you the ingredients that are used here. Milk, eggs, flour, and soy milk. Soybeans, I believe that's what it is. So that's kind of good if you have allergies to those things. They let you know on the back of the packaging.

00:09:00 John Daub: All right, let's open up this Uji Matcha one from FamilyMart. Ooh, that opened up nice. The moment of truth. Whoa, that is a beautiful green. Here, I can get the light a little bit better. Yeah, look at that. It's light. It's burned. It's toasted around here. But because it's been in the plastic, it's soft, and I don't like that so much. And, you know, I would recommend sticking it in the microwave for about 8 to 10 seconds if you have a choice. Yeah, but for this test, we're not going to do that. The oven better. Yeah, in the oven. All right, we're going to cut this open in a second. Let's unpackage this one. This is the Saitama. What's that place called? Sayama. Sayama. Sayama tea cream and whip. Oh, that one didn't open quite as nice. I can tell that this is thicker plastic. I don't know if that makes a difference, but maybe this breathes better. It says shin hatsubai (new release), which means it's a new product. Ooh, this isn't quite as green as the other one. The matcha certainly makes it greener, doesn't it? On the bottom, they look almost identical with the bottom of the grilling. And, yeah, this has more of the melon pan pattern to it, you know? Side by side, there you go. Oh, Mr. Bean got chopped down. Sorry about that. He's just hiding the branding of that. There. So there you go. This is what we have here.

00:10:30 John Daub: I'm guessing that this is going to be more intense flavor. Do you have any guesses which one's going to be more oishii (delicious)? Which one do you think? This one. Really? This Sayama? Yeah. Maybe. It's going to be quite an experiment. I love testing these convenience store. I love testing these foods out and just testing them out. Let's go against the grain here. Oh, look at that whipped cream. All right. Pan down. All right. We see here's a cross-section now. We're on this channel. We do things right. We really want to do things. Is that like matcha jelly? Did it say? Yeah. And this one looks like the coconut jam from Singapore, doesn't it? I'm getting like... It's going to eat. Yeah. It kind of has a feeling. It kind of makes me feel like it's the... What do you guys think? It kind of looks like the green tea, the coconut jam from Malaysia and Singapore kind of. It looks good. And that's the whipped cream. We're going to see how good that whipped cream is. And this one has like... They put matcha in the whipped cream because the whipped cream looks green, doesn't it? And this is a dark intense cream. Pandan kaya. That's right. Personality of the wall. That's Leo's favorite food. Thank you, Diana, for always... That's our supplier. She's our supplier. She's our supplier. So you guys can take your pick which one you think is going to win. This is the FamilyMart one with Uji Matcha, and this is the green tea one from Lawson's. And they both look pretty interesting. Here are the wrappers here.

00:12:00 John Daub: All right. Now it's Mr. Bean taking charge. All right. Now it's time to try it out here. High tech production here. All right. Let's go in for the... Uji Melon Pan. It's from FamilyMart? Yeah. This is the Uji Melon Pan from FamilyMart. Itadakimasu (let's eat). Itadakimasu. I can smell the matcha and the cheap Wonder Bread smell and the matcha. Oh! That was anko (sweet red bean paste), wasn't it? Is that anko? What the... It's like... It's not anko, but it's... It tastes like anko to me. Are you sure? It's matcha. It's matcha paste. Are you sure? Let me check. It's either matcha paste or matcha-infused red bean paste. With the whipped cream, it tastes a little bit like anko, but could be just... It's paste. Wow. It's paste. Wow. All right. That's going to be hard to beat. Yeah, but the paste is kind of heavy, like anko. It's sweet. It's always a plus.

00:13:30 John Daub: All right. Now it's time for the Lawson's Sayama Cha-Iri Cream. Less calories, less fun. We'll find out here. Okay. All right. Itadakimasu. Itadakimasu. That's interesting. What is? I like this because there's a bitterness to it. It's a little bitter. Like there's a sweetness. It's sweet and bitter. Not like a dark chocolate type of thing, but you know, like you've all had like the green tea. When you put like boiling hot water, you're supposed to use about like not boiling hot water when you make green tea, but if you use boiling hot water, the caffeine increases in green tea, thus raising the bitterness. It's more bitter. So that's what it tastes like. It's got this bitterness to the cream, which is adding a complexity, which makes it better. Just a little bit something, which adds something when you eat it that makes it better than this one. And that is interesting.

00:15:00 John Daub: I don't know. I don't know which one. This, the Uji Matcha. I like both. I like both. Well, you have to pick one. You're in jail. You have a final meal. This one is more, I can taste the matcha more than this. Well, this is supposed to be not matcha. It's a green tea, so. Yeah, it's green tea. I guess it's not a fair comparison, but green tea is not matcha. Matcha is not green tea. It's made with different kind of tea. The matcha in Uji is covered the whole time. It's not exposed to the sunlight. So, it grows slower and sweeter. Green tea sometimes is out in the open and thus it grows more, but there's also a bitterness to it, which I think is pleasant. Do you put sugar in your green tea? No. No, nobody does that here. The reason why is because that bitterness is not a bad thing. The bitterness I think is like an enhancer. It's a flavor that I really enjoy. So, in that sense, but you won't have to worry about it because that bitterness is sweet in this one. I'm going to give it to this one. The Sayama tea wins because of the custard in there, which is just so creamy good. And that bitterness, which is the extra little something that puts it over the top. But this is good because of the crunchiness. Yeah, I pick this one. I pick this one. You pick the Uji Matcha. Yeah, I pick Uji Matcha. And I pick the Sayama. It just shows different tastes. I kind of like its bitter. Yeah, I can taste more Uji Matcha. It's good. It's good with tea and coffee. It's really good.

00:16:30 John Daub: So, if you want to learn more about it, I have a video about the harvest of tea. I produced it about a year ago. I went out to Shizuoka, which is a place that has a lot of tea. It has some of the most and best green tea. Kagoshima is a little bit bigger now, the amount of tea that they produce. A little bit cheaper, too. But Shizuoka is the brand, man. Right off of Mt. Fuji, the soil is good. And I go into a factory, and I take you with me, and I show you the entire process from farm to table. So, you're going to want to check this one out. This is pretty... This is thorough. I don't know why I didn't do better. I guess because there's a lot of other green tea videos out there. But this one will absolutely tell you the entire process from start to finish. From the steaming of it, what are the differences, how they grade it, how do they test it, which one is good, how do they determine the prices, because different bags have different prices to it. And then we also look a little bit at matcha, which is part two of it, which I'm hoping this episode does a little bit better, because I want to show the part two of it. But, yeah, it was a lot of fun to make this episode. And this will give you all the information that you ever needed, that you ever thought that you... I don't know if you ever thought that you needed. Because... That's why I made it. I wanted to also learn about it, too.

00:18:00 John Daub: Hey, Michael's here. Michael, thank you for the wonderful gifts. One more time. I love Japan desserts, especially green tea and matcha flavored ones. I'd probably enjoy both. You probably would. It's hard to determine which one, but since the green tea one has less calories and is cheaper, I give that the slight edge. Slight. It's very slight. And Nstar is here. Hi, John. I'm arriving in Japan on a public holiday, Sports Day. How busy is it? I'm not sure if you can tell me anything about it on that day. Anything to keep in mind? It's not that busy. I don't think people are out and about. When is it? What month? October or September? Sports Day? Yeah. I... Isn't that in July? What? I think it's in July, isn't it? What day is the Sports Day? I think it's in the summer. It is a hot day. I remember they had these... guns or fireworks that they fired off in the morning that woke me up the first year that I came here because they are celebrating like undokai (sports day) and a bunch of other sporting days. So the schools in the area make it like a field day. And I don't think it's too busy. Most people are at home and particular families for Sports Day. I think we have some event on... Yeah. Yeah. There are some events. I don't think it's that busy or any busier than that, but the weekend, the day after might be kind of busy. And that might be silver week might be incorporated... Yeah. And then the golden week. ...into this. Yeah. So as long as it's not next week, which is golden week, you're probably okay because that's the worst time to visit Japan because the entire country is on the move. Oh yeah. The Shinkansen are full. You have to have reserved in advance. Shinkansen are full. The airports are all full. The hotel prices go up two to three times. And it's harder to find the places that you're looking for.

00:19:30 John Daub: I appreciate the question. That's all we got today. I do have this one. Do you want to... Should we do this one? What do you think? Okay. Michael chimed in, so we have to give Michael a little bit of a bonus here. Thank you. So we're going to do this one here. That's our air... All right. This SM7B microphone box is just perfect to do it. This is the Black Mont Blanc. And it actually ends today. It's at Lawson. Look at that. It's like see-through blue. That's kind of cool. It makes it more fun when it's in a fun wrapper. Oh, that's chocolate. Oh, this is going to be good. So they've added in these cookie crunch with chocolate on top of the melon pan. Oh, wow. Okay. This is going to be good. It expires in a couple of days, so you can see right there. It is definitely more calories than the other one. It's 70 more calories in this one. 70? Yeah. The other one was 359 calories. This is 430. Yeah. So you know it's going to be good for you. But we're going to cut it in half here. Oh, I smell the chocolate. It smells like the black black. Maybe that's what it is with, that crunchy black cross-section. A little bit of green matcha on there. That's got to be good. Do you want... I can't eat the full one, so let's cut this in half and half. Does this compare? I like the science of eating. Is this... Is chocolate going to beat out the matcha? Hard to tell. Itadakimasu. I can't show this. Chocolate's falling off. I don't like it. You don't like it? No. I like it. The bread is too hard. It tastes like it's stale. Can you set some... I like this one. It's crunchy on the top. Yeah. And the whipped cream, soft. The bread's a little bit hard. I think it needs a microwave, maybe 10 seconds in the microwave. It's good. I like it. Really? I like it. I like chocolate. I like chocolate. I like the crunchiness. I think just the... I like the whipped cream. I think just the bread is not good. And it's like if the crust on a pizza's bad, then the whole pizza's bad. You know what I mean? The bread's a little bit dry. A little dry. And it's a little bit... It's good. Yeah. But it's a neat experience to try it once in your life. And I've tried the black saku saku (crunchy) melon bread. So have you. And so have you, in a way.

00:21:00 Kanae Daub: If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. Anything you want to tell the people, Kanae?

00:21:30 Kanae Daub: We have many kinds of matcha in Japan right now. Snacks, chocolate, cookie, pokey. So if you come here, please try one.

00:22:00 John Daub: Yeah. Please try one. Yeah. I love the matcha ice cream. Yeah. This is the 7-Eleven. I think I took... I wanted to show you. Like, it's weird because 7-Eleven didn't have any matcha... Any matcha confection breads here in the whole thing. That one with the cream is it. But they just had the normal matcha right there. So I was kind of disappointed with 7-Eleven not having enough matcha bakery items. But if you look at FamilyMart, they have a ton of them. But they also had a strawberry melon pan and they had a butter melon pan. And then they had a mochiri Hokkaido melon pan. Do you see that? The strawberry one looks really good right there. Everybody loves a melon pan. Oh, yeah. Well, I don't know. I think that this is the front of FamilyMart. FamilyMart's having a melon pan, like, festival. You can see there all the different Uji matcha confections that they have. Not just melon pan, but I thought that there was some interesting stuff. And FamilyMart's been doing really good. 7-Eleven is the number one convenience store in Japan. FamilyMart's a very close second, I think. And Lawson's is kind of a distant third. But they've been changing their food. It's getting a little bit better. What do you think about that ranking? 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, and then Lawson's. Let me know in the comments below. I like 7-Eleven. Yeah, I like 7-Eleven, too. They're thinking more about organic ingredients, right? Yeah. Than the other ones. And if you read labels, which is what we do, 7-Eleven's stuff has less chemicals, more fresher. I think they put just a little bit more thought into it. But I think FamilyMart is catching up. If not, they're about the same. Yeah. Alright. Thanks, everybody, for watching. See you.

00:22:45 Kanae Daub: See you.