Mochi ice cream is a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese confection made from mochi (pounded sticky rice) with an ice cream

Ice cream

Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...

 filling.

Originally created by Lotte

Lotte (conglomerate)

Lotte Co., Ltd. is a South Korean-Japanese Jaebeol and one of the largest food and shopping groups in South Korea and Japan. Lotte was established in June 1948, in Tokyo, by Japanese-educated, Korean businessman Shin Kyuk-Ho – also known as...

, as Yukimi Daifuku

Yukimi Daifuku

Yukimi Daifuku is a brand of mochi ice cream manufactured by Lotte. It consists of a ball of vanilla ice cream wrapped in a thin layer of mochi, or rice cake. Lotte originally created Wataboshi , a bite-size ice cream wrapped in a thin layer of marshmallow in 1980...

 in 1981, the company first made the product by using a rice starch instead of sticky rice and a type of ice milk instead of real ice cream. Mochi ice cream is now an internationally recognized food. Current marketing names include Mikawaya's "Mochi Ice Cream" in the United States (also used by other companies), which began production of what is now known as mochi ice cream in the United States in 1993.
Mochi ice cream can be considered finger food or is served on a toothpick.