The new Kobe shop layers matcha, chestnut, and strawberry cream into autumn-inspired swirls
Japanese Mont Blanc keeps evolving.
The chestnut dessert may trace its origins to Europe, but the version most people associate with Japan — topped with delicate strands of cream and endlessly reinvented in new forms — has become a category of its own. Now, a new shop in Kobe is taking that evolution one step further with Mont Blanc soft serve inspired by the colors of autumn leaves.
Opening on June 24 inside TOOTH TOOTH MART, one of Kobe’s largest food halls, AKINOEN (秋野円) is a specialty Mont Blanc soft-serve shop built around the seasonal transformation of Japanese foliage, from green to gold to deep red.
The shop will offer six varieties of Mont Blanc soft serve in total, featuring ingredients including Yame matcha, Kumamoto chestnut, Okinawan purple sweet potato, black sesame, and strawberry.
AKINOEN also serves bite-sized churros made from scratch in-house. Customers can pair them with seven dipping sauces, including Yame matcha, kuromitsu kinako (brown sugar syrup and roasted soybean flour), and Setouchi lemon custard.
Japan has spent decades transforming Mont Blanc into something far beyond a traditional chestnut cake. At AKINOEN, that process continues — this time in the form of a soft-serve cone colored like autumn.
AKINOEN
・When: Opens June 24, 2026
・Where: TOOTH TOOTH MART FOOD Hall & Night Fes, Kobe Port Museum 1F, 7-2 Shinkocho, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo
・Official site (Japanese only): https://toothtooth.com/food-hall/24698
