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Daiso's Roasted Sweet Potato Tea Is a "Legendary" Hit

The episode's spread included sweet potato and chestnut snacks from supermarkets and convenience stores, plus Daiso's roasted sweet potato tea tipped off by a listener email. The moment they brought the tea close, the aroma of sweet potato filled the room. Drinking it, both agreed it was "toasty and slid right down before you even registered it as sweet potato" and that "nothing lingers in a bad way." The specs won them over too: the only ingredient is domestic sweet potato, it's 100% Japanese-grown, caffeine-free, and packed with vitamin C and polyphenols. Anri recommended it specifically for late-night hunger, saying it delivers enough satisfaction to get you through. The real milestone, though, was Tanabe—known for her strict standards on anything sweet-potato-flavored—declaring she loved it outright. Anri immediately called the episode legendary: "Getting Tanabe to approve of a sweet potato product is no small feat."

Sweet Potato Snack Taste Test: Two Seven-Eleven Items Stand Out

Seven-Eleven's push-out imo yokan (sweet potato jelly) came out jiggly in appearance, quite different from the firmer Funawa-style variety, and both hosts found it refreshingly new while still delivering clear sweet potato flavor. Paired with the roasted sweet potato tea, Anri declared it felt like eating an actual roasted sweet potato.

Seven-Eleven's mitsu-imo an-butter sand—purple chocolate coating over a sweet potato an filling—initially made both hosts nervous when they opened the package. But after tasting it they were surprised: the sweetness hits hard upfront, then finishes with a subtle saltiness that keeps it balanced. They were equally impressed by the craftsmanship of coating the sweet potato an. Rooibos cream sandwiches with sweet potato cream also scored well—"the cracker's nuttiness matches the sweet potato cream perfectly"—and combined with the tea, Anri said the pairing had an almost transcendent lifting quality.

Chestnut Flavors Still a Work in Progress: Tirol Choco and Choco Pie Scores

Chestnut snacks produced more mixed results. Tirol Choco's Mont Blanc flavor received warm praise—"outstanding as a chocolate, and not overdone"—but when asked whether it counts as chestnut, Tanabe said no. She explained that she dislikes artificially heavy chestnut taste, so the lack of that artificiality is a plus; it just doesn't read as chestnut. Choco Pie's chestnut-and-sweet-potato variety was another story. Anri narrated Tanabe's eyes visibly shifting, and the verdict was that while the Choco Pie format itself is a masterpiece of a confection, calling it chestnut or sweet potato is a separate matter—filed firmly under "annoying."

Their combined takeaway: chestnut and sweet potato snacks have improved enormously compared to years past—the heavy-handed artificiality is largely gone—but chestnut is still harder to nail. They also noted an interesting naming asymmetry: products lean into "mont blanc" when marketing chestnut, whereas sweet potato can simply be called "imo" with no embarrassment.

Listener Mail #1: Japan's First Amashoku Specialty Shop "Demian" in Fukushima

A listener named Suisui Sui (food-themed listener name) wrote in about Demian, introduced as Japan's first shop dedicated entirely to amashoku (a soft, slightly sweet Japanese bun). Beyond the classic plain version, Demian offers chocolate chip, Earl Grey, and other flavored varieties, all with a crispy outer shell and moist, airy interior that the listener said upends everything you thought you knew about amashoku.

Tanabe immediately fired back that Yamaguchi Prefecture has its own exceptional amashoku specialist—she follows them on Instagram but couldn't recall the name, wondering aloud if it might be "Seika-ho" (生花法). Anri admitted she has only ever eaten the plastic-bag supermarket kind, prompting Tanabe to lay out the distinction in detail: supermarket amashoku has a puffed, soft texture; specialty-shop amashoku is properly crisp. She urged Anri to compare them side by side. The idea of a flavored amashoku was new to both of them, and the existence of an Earl Grey version left them genuinely surprised.

Listener Mail #2: Using Starbucks Flavor Syrups as Gifts

Listener Nanameyoko recommended gifting Starbucks flavor syrups—vanilla, caramel, hazelnut, and Valencia orange—as creative presents or thank-you items. The suggested uses ranged from a sugar substitute in coffee or tea, to drizzling over ice cream, folding into the egg wash for French toast for a nutty note, and using as a soak syrup for chiffon cake. Nanameyoko also mentioned buying a bottle monthly as a treat to herself.

As Tanabe was listening, she chimed in that syrups would be great in chiffon cake—at which point Anri called her out immediately: "That was the email writer's idea! You heard 'French toast' just now and rephrased it as your own opinion!" The exchange got a big laugh. Neither host has ever bought the tabasco-style bottles themselves despite having seen them in stores, and both agreed that receiving something you would never buy for yourself is exactly what makes a gift feel special. The conversation drifted toward Starbucks black pepper potato chips, which Anri had never tried; she was reluctant because she worried they'd crumble in her bag, while Tanabe argued that having snacks on hand whenever you want them is the whole point.