We picked up these Monario Soy Milk Pudding in Kumamoto where they’re produced using fresh fruit purée, soybean milk and soybean purée. We have four of the five flavours — missing mango — simply through luck of the draw as the package we picked up doubled up on lychee.
While single mouthful cups are available, these were the bigger sized ones around 6 cm in diameter. The brand recommends eating the pudding chilled or frozen then defrosted for a gelato like consistency.
Lychee
The lychee soy milk pudding is an opaque off white colour with a fragrant floral lychee aroma.
The prominent tropical and floral sweetness that we enjoy in fresh lychees came through in the pudding here with an enjoyable lightness and smoothness, before a slightly offputting soy milk flavour came through in the finish. Eaten frozen and defrosted for that gelato texture,
Strawberry
The strawberry soy milk pudding is an opaque pale pink colour and smells of fresh strawberries.
The strawberry flavour was bright despite the pale pink colour of the pudding. The flavour has the prominent sweetness with a natural tartness in the finish that’s characteristic of ripe strawberries and we enjoy that it dominates the flavour of the soy.
Melon
The melon soy milk pudding is an opaque orange colour with a the sweet, tropical aroma of ripe melon.
The combination of the fragrant melon flavour with the texture of the soy milk pudding (using agar) reminds of the mouthfeel of the ripe melon, much like the Hori Yubari Melon Pure Jelly Petit Gold. The rockmelon flavour has the same intense sweetness but also a punchy acidity that also mellowed the flavour of the soy milk that only comes to the fore in the finish.
Pear
Finally, the pear soy milk pudding is an opaque pale yellow-green colour with a gentle aroma of sweet pear.
The pear flavour here is light compared to the previous flavours with the sweetness of fresh pear juice, but lacked the acidity of the strawberry and melon flavours that help to mask the soy milk flavour that here, makes its presence very much known and imparts an oddness in the finish.
We very much enjoyed these puddings, although we prefer the fruits with a hint of acidity to cut through the soy milk flavour. We’re not fond of the soy milk, but it does add a creaminess to the mouthfeel.
These Monario Soymilk Pudding contained 65 g. They were produced in Japan and purchased in Kumamoto, Japan in 2019.