If you think you know what mochi tastes like, this weekend might change your mind.
For three days only, Torori Tenshi no Warabi Mochi, a popular dessert brand from Osaka, is making its Canadian debut in Vancouver.
It will also be the first warabi mochi specialty store experience.
They are taking over a corner of the Pablo Cheese Tart on West Broadway and Cambie for an exclusive pop-up event running from December 12th to 14th.
This isn’t the chewy, bouncy rice cake you are used to eating.
The brand name “Torori” loosely translates to “melt-in-the-mouth,” which describes the specific texture they are famous for.
Using rare, genuine bracken powder, they create a warabi mochi that is incredibly soft and “jiggly” rather than elastic.
Since launching in 2022, the brand exploded in popularity, opening over 100 outlets across Japan and expanding to Singapore, Taiwan, and Australia.
Now, Vancouver gets its first taste.
The pop-up will feature a live station behind glass panels, so you can watch the fresh batches being cut and dusted with powder right in front of you.
The menu is focused but specialized.
You can grab boxes of the fresh mochi dusted in either Kinako (roasted soybean powder) for $11.99 or premium Uji Matcha for $12.99. Or you can get a mix box of both flavours for $12.50.
Each box comes with a nifty pack of Japanese brown sugar syrup that you can inject for an extra hit of sweetness.
On the menu will also be the brand’s “Drinkable Warabimochi” beverages.
Because the texture is so soft, they serve it at the bottom of iced drinks like Matcha Latte, Strawberry Matcha Latte, and Hojicha Latte (prices $5.50 – $7.99).
It creates a unique “straw-friendly” dessert experience that has become their signature.
If you want to try it, you need to be strategic.
The Pablo Cheese Tart team shared with Noms Magazine that only 200 boxes of the warabi mochi will be available each day.
Once they sell out, the station closes.
Given the love for Japanese desserts in this city, we expect those boxes to disappear quickly when the doors open this Friday.
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Dates: Dec 12 – 14
Address: 511 W Broadway, Vancouver, BC (Inside Pablo Cheese Tart)