Side Note: Fruits and Strawberry Parfaits

I wasn't sure I wanted my second post of the new Ibaraki Eats to be a side note, but there are two reasons I have to talk about this place. One, it's about strawberries and the strawberry season ends around April. So I thought it would be better to let my fellow Ibarakians know about this sooner rather than later. Secondly, the particular strawberry dessert I will be talking about will only be available till maybe the end of February. That being said, today I want to talk about Fruits Peaks in Tsukuba.

Fruits Peaks

The reason this is a side note is because Fruits Peaks is not from Ibaraki. It is a chain fruit store/cafe from Fukushima. The Tsukuba Fruits Peaks is located in the Kenkyugakuen area of Tsukuba. Just go straight down the road that Tsukuba IIAS is on and after a few minutes, Fruits Peaks will be on your left.

When you walk into Fruits Peaks, there will be the fruit store on your left and the cafe on your right. In the cafe area, you can choose to sit inside the cafe or the patio area. I am always interested in outside dining, but not when it is 3 degrees Celsius outside. I should warn you, if you come to Fruit Peaks on the weekend, you are going to wait for quite a while. Sometimes the line is out the door.

Inside

The Ibaraki Eats Duo went to Fruits Peaks on a cold Tuesday afternoon a few weeks ago. Luckily, no one was there and we got a table right away. The cafe area is pretty big and can maybe fit up to 20 customers or more. When we got to our table, my wife checked out the menu and I grabbed two glasses of complementary fruit-flavored water. One orange and mango, the other pineapple and grapefruit flavored. My wife looked me straight in the eyes and said the magic word for the day. Parfait.

The Menu

Why were we at Fruits Peaks? Well, that day was my wife's birthday! She made it clear early in the week that she wanted a strawberry parfait for her birthday. I did some research and found that schedule-wise Fruits Peaks was perfect and that they had strawberry parfaits.

The menu has a lot of different fruit cakes, fruit teas, and fruit desserts to choose from. Unfortunately, the menu had no English section. But all the cakes had pictures, so that should help. There is also pasta and coffee on the menu. But we were there for parfaits so we got parfaits.

Fruit Tea

I should also mention that we got the special fruit tea. I was really impressed with this tea. It wasn't as sweet as I thought it was going to be. It was very tangy and strong, which was a nice surprise. It went well with our strawberry parfaits.

Now onto the main event, the strawberry parfaits.

Tochiaika Brulee Parfait

There are only two strawberry parfaits to choose from at Fruits Peaks. One is the Tochiaika Brulee Parfait and the other is the Amaou Strawberry Chocolate Parfait.

First, I will start with the Tochiaika Brulee Parfait. Tochiaika is the type of strawberry in this parfait. Tochi means that they are from Tochigi prefecture, famous for strawberries, aika meaning...not really sure. This strawberry has a little bit or sourness to it but it is still very sweet and was perfect with this dessert. This parfait has raspberries with strawberry jam at the bottom, fresh cream, strawberry ice cream, salty caramel walnuts, chocolate ice cream, and at the very top is the creme brulee. Breaking through the hard surface of a creme brulee is always satisfying. But breaking through and getting all those different flavors with the creme brulee is spectacular. I highly recommend getting a spoonful of creme brulee with a slice of Tochiaika strawberry in it. Amazing doesn't even begin to describe the flavor.

This parfait was heavenly, but I think it is good for one person. It is too small to share between two people. The next parfait though, is a tower of strawberries.

Amaou Strawberry Parfait

Amaou is the type of strawberry in the parfait. It is from Hakata I believe and it is supposed to be the queen of all Japanese strawberries. It is a huge strawberry and very sweet. This parfait brings about 8 or 10 amaou strawberries. From the bottom, this parfait brings raspberry with strawberry jam, salty caramel walnuts, strawberry ice cream, chocolate ice cream, blueberries, fresh cream, and a lot of strawberries on top. This parfait can easily be shared by two people, and that is what we did. My favorite part of this parfait was getting a spoonful of whatever amazing chocolate ice cream was in the parfait with an amaou strawberry. The strawberry by itself is magical, but there was something about that chocolate ice cream that when mixed with the strawberry made it transcending. I loved this parfait and my wife crowned it her favorite of the two. I would love to have this parfait again before it is no longer avaliable sometime in February.

Take out Cake

I should also mention that you can come into Fruits Peaks and take a slice of cake or a whole cake to go. Before you enter the cafe, there is a cake display right by the cafe cashier. Just tell the staff what cake slice you want and they will grab it for you. I have tried other fruit cakes from this place and I have never been disappointed. But I will say that they are pricey. I saw one slice of cake go for as high as 1,300 yen. For one slice! Again, they are very tasty cakes but I think this is a more special occasion type of place rather than a regular "give me some cake" type of place.

After we finished our parfaits, my wife said "Thank you for planning this, the parfaits were great." At that moment, I was confident that I fulfilled my wife's birthday wish. Until she said, "I want another parfait." Well, that parfait will have to wait till next time.

Fruits Peaks was an interesting and tasty experience. The parfaits were wonderful and as I stated earlier, I have tried different fruit cakes from them before and all of those cakes were fantastic. Everything is delicious but Fruits Peaks can be a bit expensive and only a place I would visit on special occasions.

So if you have a birthday or anniversary, or just want a fruit dessert, why not head over to Fruits Peaks in Tsukuba to get yourself or your special someone a tasty treat? Who knows, you might see me there, sharing another parfait with my wife. I mean, she did ask for another one.
Enjoy!

For more information on Fruit Peaks, check out their website:
https://fruitspeaks.jp/shop/