New Tokyo Banana Cakes Introduced

Above, a box of the regular Tokyo Banana cakes (minus three) that I bought in 2010.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Back in 2010, before I headed off to Japan, I mentioned the upcoming trip to one of my company's clients and he asked me to bring him back a box of Tokyo Banana cakes. This was the first I've ever heard of Tokyo Banana, but they seem to be one of the most popular souvenirs people bring home from Japan.

So, I bought a couple of boxes of a dozen each, one for him and one for me. Upon getting home, I opened my box and tried one. I could see why they're so popular. They kind of look like Twinkies, but they are filled with banana-flavored custard pudding.

RocketNews24 has posted an article on a new Tokyo Banana that has just been introduced.

They wrote:

One of the reporters at our sister site Pouch is also apparently a big fan, so when a new version of Tokyo Banana came out this month, she naturally had to get her hands on some! And what’s so special about the new Tokyo Banana cakes? Well, to start with, they’re only sold at one location — Tokyo Station to be exact — and not only do they come in a different flavor from the regular cakes, they come in beautiful, colorful prints! 

Yes, the small sponge cakes actually have bright flowers printed all over them. The new cakes, which came out last Saturday, are called “Tokyo Banananohana”, which is a play on the words “banana” and “nanohana“, a kind of yellow rapeseed flower common in Japan, hence the yellow flower prints on the cakes.

Sounds interesting. These new Tokyo Banana cakes are shake-flavored.  Maybe I'll try these out when I go to Japan early next year.

To read more and see some pictures, go here.