BOSTON — The “Golden Shogun” ice cream cone is a customizable colossus of Japanese soft serve ice cream draped in edible gold leaf on one side. The most accessible flavor you can get in it might just be ube.
It’s an outrageous offering from an unlikely spot in Boston: Matcha Cafe Maiko. It may not be a shock to hear there’s a flashy cafe in Boston specializing in Japanese green tea. I was a little surprised to find that it’s just a five-minute walk from Fenway Park.
The Golden Shogun makes zero sense. It is a cold, gilded monument representing the hubris and opulence of humanity. Under no circumstances should it have been the only thing I ate for lunch.
But that’s what makes it awesome. It’s outlandish and memorable. I’m going to rave about this for years.
The ‘Golden Shogun’ from Matcha Cafe Maiko
The Golden Shogun is essentially a large waffle cone filled with soft serve. After it’s filled, an employee takes out a booklet of gold leaf and carefully applies it to the ice cream. After a moment, the leaf conforms to the ice cream’s swirls, creating a cool ripple effect in the gold.
Putting gold leaf on ice cream makes zero logical sense. It doesn’t add any flavor. But the visual is certainly something to behold.
Matcha Cafe Maiko specializes in a few fields: matcha drinks, boba tea, waffles and soft serve. Much of the menu consists of different combinations of those items.
A good chunk of that involves various ways of blending matcha with soft serve. Caution for those of you who aren’t adventurous with ice cream flavors, there’s no vanilla or chocolate to be found here.
Instead, they offer four popular Asian flavors along with two types of swirls:
- Matcha
- Ube
- Matcha/Ube Swirl
- Hojicha (roasted green tea)
- Thai Tea
- Thai Tea/Hojicha Swirl
You also have the option to swap a normal waffle cone for an ube-flavored waffle cone
What does it taste like?
The gold leaf tastes like nothing. It doesn’t even change the texture much. You can easily pierce it with your tongue. It reminds me a little of eating pudding that’s developed just a little bit of skin on top.
As for the actual ice cream, I could have just gotten matcha soft serve in a plain cone. But I decided to get a little crazy instead. So I opted for the matcha/ube swirl with an ube-flavored cone.
I’m glad I did. I had a lot of fun going back and forth between the two different flavors.
The matcha was pleasantly earthy. You still get that grassy flavor that’s characteristic of the green tea expressed through the sweetness and creaminess.
The ube had a nice, mellow sweetness. It’s not as sweet as what you’d get with, for example, vanilla from Dairy Queen. Instead, it’s a more muted flavor that opens the door for a broader spectrum of flavors to come through.
When eaten together, you get this wild roller coaster of roasted tea and sweet purple yams.
The ube cone didn’t seem to make much of a difference. It’s hard to pick up those flavors over the big flavors that the ice cream gives off.
So is it any good?
Taste-wise, I enjoyed the heck out of this.
It’s not the sort of thing I expect to go out and eat on a daily basis in Boston. But as someone who’s familiar with these types of flavors, it was a lot of fun.
A normal cone of soft serve costs $7.75. That gets you a huge helping of ice cream. So the value isn’t too bad there.
The Golden Shogun comes with a $5 upcharge for the gold leaf, giving it a price tag of $12.75.
The final word
This is one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen on a menu. Putting gold leaf on ice cream makes zero logical sense.
I fully understand if people look at this and think it’s stupid. In many ways, it is.
But I like the spectacle of it. It’s especially cool to find a spot like this in Massachusetts.
Gold leaf-covered ice cream feels like the sort of thing you see on social media and find out you can only get in New York City or Singapore.
For once, the crazy dessert is available in Boston.
More info about Matcha Cafe Maiko
Check them out: Website | Facebook | Instagram
Where are they located? — 115 Jersey St, Boston, Massachusetts, 02215
What’s the parking situation? — The only nearby parking is street parking.
When are they open? — Here are the listed business hours at the time of writing:
- Monday: 1 p.m. – 9 p.m.
- Tuesday: 1 p.m. – 9 p.m.
- Wednesday: 1 p.m. – 9 p.m.
- Thursday: 1 p.m. – 9 p.m.
- Friday: Noon – 10 p.m.
- Saturday: Noon – 10 p.m.
- Sunday: 12 p.m. – 9 p.m.
