One of the things I like about living in Japan food wise is the sense of seasons and time in what is available. Fruits are available seasonally, for example; my favorite peaches can only be found in july early august. It keeps things special and changing and new, and generally the taste is better because instead of forced hot house produce you are eating fruit when it grows naturally.
Peaches in Summer, Mikan *Tangerines in Winter, Japanese grapes in the fall with the Fuji Apples... and so it goes.
this special edition mentality often gets taken to extremes however. Young japanese shoppers will line up for hours and spend hundreds of thousands of yen for a limited edition LVMH bag. And in a less expensive but even more interesting example... there is limited edition candy. each year, almost every month, in the convienience stores there is some special limited box or bag or bar of candy. The ones shown above are from last month... already gone from the shelves. I didn't think much of the pie alamode but the cappuccino one was actually pretty yummy.
I note that this kind of marketing is expanding back into the states as well. Starbucks used to only have special edition drinks in the USA for christmas... in japan a few years ago they started having all kinds of limited drinks at the Starbucks here. But I read recently that USA starbucks is creating more special menu items too.
I Love Gingerbread latte's by the way, and the GL season went by far too quickly this year.
I wonder if the special edition candy, coffee, etc. is not a reaction to tapping into the speedy lives we all lead and our desire to slow things down, make the time special. Smell the flowers? Anyway, more on special candy as I spot them.
-ls
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