Three strawberries hidden inside this winter-exclusive heartwarming red bean pastry — only 50 made daily

▲ Custard cream strawberry red bean pastry. (Photo/Screen capture fromINO Ice’s official fanpage, same below)

Travel Center / Comprehensive Report

You’ve probably tried red bean pastries with cream cheese, cheese, or preserved radish flavors, but you’ve definitely never hadcustard cream strawberry red bean pastry, which is only available in winter and can’t be found in summer. Freshly baked, the winter-exclusive custard cream strawberry red bean pastry has a crispy crust — just one bite and the rich custard cream bursts out inside.

Cai Tian, the owner of INO Ice in Taichung, said that the inspiration for creating these winter-exclusive custard cream strawberry red bean pastries came from their handmade star product — the custard filling. It uses organic eggs, Japanese Tōkyū flour, and natural vanilla beans, with no artificial flavorings at all. Coincidentally, Taiwan is currently in strawberry season with delicious strawberries available, so they got the idea to incorporate them into the red bean filling as a new flavor.Limited to 50 per day.

▲ INO Ice’s red bean pastries all have very unique flavors.

Aside from the custard cream strawberry red bean pastry, the other flavors are also quite special, such as Ippodo matcha pumpkin cheese, Ippodo matcha white cheese with lime grapes, and Michelle chocolate cheese OREO. However,the prices aren’t low — each pastry ranges from NT$35 to NT$45, about 3 to 5 times the price of a regular red bean pastry.

Cai Tian said: “We strive to develop flavors that you can’t find elsewhere on the market. We want to make even simple red bean pastries truly unique — we launch a new flavor about once a month on average.” He especially recommends the Ippodo matcha pumpkin cheese with its refreshing bitterness.

Cai Tian said they plan to releasecurry chicken, Thai larb pork,and coffee custard walnut-flavored red bean pastries. Customers will have to wait and see. All the pastries are freshly baked in-store, so customers may need to wait a bit — or they can call ahead to place an order and pick it up later.

*Especially recommended: Ippodo matcha pumpkin cheese with its refreshing bitterness.*