The Asian Reporter, 922 N Killingsworth Street, Portland, OR (2025)

09/07/2025

Bugs are popular pets in nature-loving Japan, buzzing with lessons about ecology and species
By Yuri Kageyama
The Associated Press
www.asianreporter.com/stories/2025/int09c-25.htm
September 1, 2025

TOKYO — The pet of choice in Japan, as much as cuddly kitties and playful puppies, is the humble bug.
The bug has been a key part of Japanese culture from the Heian era classic The Tale of Genji to popular modern-day manga and animation like Mushishi, featuring insect-like supernatural creatures.
Japanese people appreciate the glitter of fireflies let loose in the garden or the gentle chirping of crickets kept in a little cage. You can feed the bug pets watermelon, but special jelly pet food for bugs is also available at stores. Naturally, bugs are on sale as well, with the more esoteric ones selling for 20,000 yen ($133).
Here, crawly and buzzing critters are not just relegated to the scientific realm of the entomologist working on a taxidermy of pinned butterflies. Celebrities boast about their fascination with bug-hunting as their hobbies just like a western movie star might talk about his yacht or golf score.
The bug as companion is an essential part of what’s observed, enjoyed, and cared for in everyday life, reflecting a deeply rooted celebration of humankind’s oneness with nature.
“They are so tiny. If you catch and study them, you’re sure to discover something new,” says Munetoshi Maruyama, professor of bioenvironmental sciences at Kyushu University, whose fascination with bugs began as a child, like many Japanese.
“They are so beautiful in shape and form.”
One thrill that comes from studying insects is discovering a new species, simply because there are more than 1.2 million known kinds of insects, far more than mammals, which translates to a lot of undiscovered ones, said Maruyama, who has discovered 250 new insect species himself and shrugs that off as a relatively small number.
Japan differs from much of the west in encouraging interaction with bugs from childhood, with lots of books written for children, as well as classes and tours.
“In Japan, kids love bugs. You can even buy a net at a convenience store,” he said. “It’s fantastic that bugs can serve as a doorway to science.”
The fact some insects go through metamorphoses, transforming from a larva to a butterfly, for instance, adds to the excitement, allowing kids to observe the stages of a life span, Maruyama said.
Tracing the movement of bugs can be a way to study global warming, too, while so-called “social insects,” like bees and ants show intelligence in how they communicate, remember routes to find their way back to their nests, or burrow elaborate underground paths as colonies.
Because bugs carry out important functions in the ecosystem, such as pollinating crops and becoming food for birds and other wildlife, human life isn’t ultimately sustainable if all bugs were to disappear from earth.
The love affair with bugs was clear at an exhibit in Tokyo, aptly called “The Great Insect Exhibition,” which ran through the end of August at the Sky Tree Tower, where crowds of children gathered around trees inside indoor cages so they could observe and touch the various beetles.
One kind of rhinoceros beetle known as Hercules, which originated in the Caribbean but is now also found in Japan, is reputed to be the biggest beetle on record, although it’s just several inches in length. Its back coat is a shiny khaki color, though such shades change depending on the season. The other parts, like its horn and delicate but spiky legs, are dark.
“We want the kids to feel the emotions and joy of actually touching the insects here. That’s really positive for the workings of a child’s brain,” said Toyoji Suzuki, one of the event’s organizers, who insisted everyone, including adults, touch the bottom of the beetles’ horns and wings to feel how surprisingly soft and fluffy they are.
Four-year-old Asahi Yamauchi, who was at the exhibit with his grandmother and getting his photo taken inside a special installation that made it look like he was inside a beetle, loves bugs as much as he loves dinosaurs and has what he called a cute beetle as a pet at home.
“My friend had one so I wanted one,” he said.

PHOTO CREDITS:
BEETLEMANIA. A beetle known as Hercules, top left photo, is seen at an exhibition devoted to insects in Tokyo. The pet of choice in Japan, as much as cuddly kitties and playful puppies, is the humble bug. The bug has been a key part of Japanese culture from the Heian era classic The Tale of Genji to popular modern-day manga and animation like Mushishi, featuring insect-like supernatural creatures. Also pictured are (clockwise from top right) children looking at beetles, four-year-old Asahi Yamauchi playing with a large beetle displayed behind him, and attendees walking around the exhibit. (AP Photos/Yuri Kageyama)

09/07/2025

Matcha madness leaves Japan’s tea ceremony pros skeptical
By Yuri Kageyama
The Associated Press
www.asianreporter.com/stories/2025/int09d-25.htm
September 1, 2025

TOKYO — Clad in an elegant kimono of pale green, tea ceremony instructor Keiko Kaneko uses a tiny wooden spoon to place a speck of matcha into a porcelain bowl.
She froths up the special powdered Japanese green tea with a bamboo whisk after pouring hot water with a ladle from a pot simmering over hot coal.
Her solemn, dance-like movements celebrate a Zen-like transient moment, solitude broken up by the ritualistic sharing of a drink.
No wonder Kaneko and others serious about “sado,” or “the way of tea,” are a bit taken aback by how matcha is suddenly popping up in all sorts of things, from lattes and ice cream to cakes and chocolate.
No one knows for sure who started the global matcha boom, which has been going on for several years. But it’s clear that harvests, especially of fine-grade matcha, can’t keep up with demand.
A booming market
Matcha is a type of tea that’s grown in shade, steamed, and then ground into a very fine powder. It’s processed differently from regular green tea, with the best matcha ground using stone mills, and switching from one to the other takes time. No farmer wants to switch and then find that matcha fever has died.
The Japanese agricultural ministry has been working to boost tea growth, offering help for farmers with new machines, special soil, financial aid, and counselling to try to coax tea growers to switch to matcha from regular green “sencha” tea.
“We don’t want this to end up just a fad, but instead make matcha a standard as a flavor and Japanese global brand,” said Tomoyuki Kawai, who works at the tea section of the agricultural ministry.
Production of “tencha,” the kind of tea used for matcha, nearly tripled from 1,452 tons in 2008, to 4,176 tons in 2023, according to government data.
Japan’s tea exports have more than doubled over the last decade, with the U.S. now accounting for about a third. Much of that growth is of matcha, according to Japanese government data. The concern is that with labor shortages as aging farmers leave their fields, the matcha crunch may worsen in coming years.
Other countries, including China and some Southeast Asian countries, also are producing matcha, so Japan is racing to establish its branding as the origin of the tea.
An art form turned into a global fun drink
Tea ceremony practitioners aren’t angered by the craze, just perplexed. They hope it will lead to people taking an interest in sado, whose followers have been steadily declining. But they aren’t counting on it.
The tea ceremony is “reminding us to cherish every encounter as unique and unrepeatable,” said Kaneko, who is a licensed instructor.
She pointed to the special small entrance to her tea house. Noble samurai had to stoop to enter, leaving their swords behind them. The message: when partaking of tea, everyone is equal.
The purity and stillness of the ceremony are a world apart from the hectic and mundane, and from the craze for matcha that’s brewing outside the tea house.
The Matcha Crème Frappuccino is standard fare at the Starbucks coffee outlets everywhere. While matcha, a special ingredient traditionally used in the tea ceremony, isn’t meant to be drunk in great quantities at once like regular tea or juices, it’s suddenly being consumed like other fruit and flavors.
Matcha drinks have become popular at cafés from Melbourne to Los Angeles. Various cookbooks offer matcha recipes, and foreign tourists to Japan are taking home tins and bags of matcha as souvenirs.
It’s a modern take on traditions perfected by the 16th century Buddhist monk Sen no Rikyu in Kyoto, who helped shape the traditions of the tea ceremony and of “wabi-sabi,” the rustic, imperfect but pure and nature-oriented aesthetic often seen as synonymous with high-class Japanese culture.
Matcha’s future
Minoru Handa, the third-generation chief of suburban tea store Tokyo Handa-en, which sells green and brown tea as well as matcha, says the appeal of matcha is in its versatility. Unlike tea leaves, the powder can be easily mixed into just about anything.
“The health boom and the interest in Japanese culture have added to the momentum,” he said, stirring a machine that was roasting brown tea, sending a pungent aroma through the streets.
“It’s safe and healthy so there’s practically no reason it won’t sell,” said Handa.
His business, which dates back to 1815, has a longtime relationship with growers in Kagoshima, southwestern Japan, and has a steady supply of matcha. To guard against hoarders he limits purchases at his store to one can per customer.
Handa, who has exhibited his prize-winning tea in the U.S. and Europe, expects that growers will increase the supply and shrugs off the hullabaloo over the matcha shortage.
But Anna Poian, co-director and founder of the Global Japanese Tea Association, thinks lower-grade matcha should be used for things like lattes, since one has to put in quite a lot of fine-grade matcha to be able to taste it.
“It’s a bit of a shame. It’s a bit of a waste,” she said.
The best matcha should be reserved for the real thing, she said in an interview from Madrid.
“It is a very delicate, complex tea that is produced with the idea to be drunk only with water,” she said.

PHOTO CREDITS:
MATCHA CRAZE. Tea ceremony master Keiko Kaneko, left photo, demonstrates the tea ceremony at her tea house in Tokyo. Pictured in the right photo is Matcha Kaki Gori, shaved ice desserts, served at Ogikubo Three Gardens in Tokyo. (AP Photos/Yuri Kageyama)

09/07/2025

Taiwan shuts out Nevada 7-0 to win its first Little League World Series title since 1996
By Alexandra Wenskoski and Amanda Vogt
The Associated Press
www.asianreporter.com/stories/sports/2025/09-25-llws.htm
September 1, 2025

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — It might not have been perfect, but for Taiwan it was still pretty great.
Lin Chin-Tse retired the first 13 batters he faced and allowed just one hit in five innings as Taiwan beat Nevada 7-0 in the Little League World Series (LLWS) championship, ending a 29-year title drought for the Taiwanese.
Taiwan won its first LLWS since 1996, although its 18 titles are the most of any country beside the United States, including five straight from 1977 to 1981.
When Chen Yi-Reng caught a fly ball in left field to end the game, Taiwan’s gloves went flying into the air as the team piled in front of the mound.
“We’re really happy that we have a chance to recapture the championship,” manager Lai Min-Nan said.
Lin, a 5’8” right hander, also smashed a three-run triple in Taiwan’s five-run fifth inning. The 12-year-old from Taipei hit more than 80 mph with his fastball multiple times during the tournament; to batters it looks much faster because the plate in this level of baseball is only 46 feet away. His velocity appeared much the same in the championship game.
Lin’s longest start before the championship was three innings in Taiwan’s opening game against Mexico. He allowed only one hit in a subsequent victory over Venezuela.
“I am very excited,” Lin said through an interpreter. “In the first inning, I was very nervous, but after that it was smooth.”
Min-Nan said Taiwan’s strategy throughout the LLWS was to “leverage the defense as the offense. If the other team cannot get any runs, there’s no way they can win this tournament.”
That plan worked pretty well. The Taiwanese gave up just three runs during their stay in Williamsport, all to Venezuela in a 7-3 victory.
Garrett Gallegos broke up the perfect game with a single into left field in the fifth inning but was caught in a double play when Grayson Miranda lined out to second. Nevada was appearing in its first championship game.
“I think you will judge this whole story, not by this one last chapter, but the whole book here,” manager T.J. Fescher said. “They will be heroes upon arrival in Las Vegas.”
Offensively, Taiwan capitalized on four wild pitches and a passed ball. Jian Zih-De worked a walk leading off the bottom of the second and later scored when he beat the throw home after one of the wild pitches.
Chen Shi-Rong scored Taiwan’s second run in the bottom of the third when he ran home on a Nevada throwing error to first base.
After his triple in the fifth made it 5-0, Lin got caught in a rundown between third and home on Tsai Yu-Ge’s ground ball, but he was bailed out on a throwing error that went deep into left field. Lin scored and so did Tsai.
The last international team to win the tournament was Japan in 2017.

PHOTO CREDITS:
BACK ON TOP. The Little League team representing Taiwan, top photo, takes a victory lap at Lamade Stadium after defeating the squad from Las Vegas, Nevada, in the Little League World Series (LLWS) championship game held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania on August 24, 2025. Taiwan won its first LLWS since 1996, although its 18 titles are the most of any country beside the United States, including five straight from 1977 to 1981. In the bottom photo, Taiwan team member Jian Zih-De celebrates his team’s LLWS championship. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

* * *

From The Asian Reporter, V35, #9 (September 1, 2025), pages 12 & 13.

Managers miffed at offshore sports betting on Little League World Series

By Amanda Vogt
The Associated Press

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Last month, as usual, sports bettors could get action on MLB games from U.S.-based gambling sites. Meanwhile, at least a couple of offshore bookmakers were offering odds on games at the Little League World Series (LLWS).
Team managers, and Little League itself, are not pleased.
“I’m not a fan,” said South Carolina’s manager Dave Bogan, noting he goes to Las Vegas twice a year. “It’s just not appropriate, it feels dirty, quite honestly.”
In news conferences throughout the Little League World Series, U.S. team managers have voiced their displeasure with gambling on their games — players at the tournament top out at 12 years old. Little League International also released a statement last month denouncing sports betting on youth competition.
“Little League is a trusted place where children are learning the fundamentals of the games and all the important life lessons that come with having fun, celebrating teamwork, and playing with integrity,” the statement said. “No one should be exploiting the success and failures of children playing the game they love for their own personal gain.”
BetOnline and Bovada were among the offshore sites offering daily odds on LLWS matchups. They are both based outside the United States and are both illegal to use in the U.S. and not subject to its laws. BetOnline is located in Panama and has offered sports betting and gambling since 1991. Bovada, a Costa Rica-based company, joined the scene in 2011.
BetOnline’s brand manager, Dave Mason, said in a post on X that BetOnline is making the moneylines itself and that it “ain’t easy.” He posted odds on X throughout the tournament.
Jon Solomon, the community impact director of Project Play, an initiative of the Aspen Institute’s Sports and Society program, said there are negative effects on young players whose games are the subject of betting. Such wagering, he says, is fairly common.
In 2018, Project Play surveyed Mobile County, Alabama, and found that “26% of surveyed youth said they had played in a game where adults bet money on who won or the final score,” according to its State of Play report.
The report said that tackle football, basketball, and baseball were more likely to be gambled on by adults according to the children surveyed.
“This is just, you know, bets that usually sort of happen, maybe at the field, or in the gym,” Solomon said in a phone interview. “Kids are already facing a lot of pressure in youth sports these days. It is a highly commercialized industry with a lot of people already making a lot of money.”
When gambling is involved in the actual performance of the game, Solomon believes the pressure can be even higher. The report showed that gambling “was witnessed by both boys (33%) and girls (19%).” In professional and collegiate sports, Solomon noted instances of athletes getting harassed by gamblers — think any kicker who missed a last-second field goal.
“Now imagine the stakes for a more impressionable child, right, or teenager?” Solomon said. “It’s so unhealthy and so unneeded, and I think if anyone is betting on youth sports, they should seriously seek help because you have a serious addiction most likely.”
Hawai‘i Little League manager Gerald Oda is adamant that gambling on these games takes away from the “beauty” of Little League.
“This is the only tournament where you’re representing your local community,” Oda said. “It’s that innocence, that pureness that these kids show on the field.”
Oda believes the memories his 12-year-old players make are more important than the games won or lost.
“It’s about them experiencing this whole moment here. They’re going to have memories saying that when I was 12, this is what we did,” Oda said. “Gambling is here to stay, but I am thankful that Little League is very protective of what they have, and they should be. You know that pure joy and emotion whether you win or you lose, that’s the greatest thing.”
Solomon said youth sports is “all about the delivery of the sport” from leagues and coaches.
“Sports, if not delivered properly, can be harmful to children and betting on sports would definitely fall into that category of it being harmful,” Solomon said. Pressure from parents and coaches, as well as early sports specialization, can also negatively impact youth sports.
In 2018, the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act that made sports betting illegal across most of the U.S for over 25 years. Now, 39 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized sports betting but states don’t allow wagers to be made where those competing are under 18.
In keeping with those laws, no online betting sites such as FanDuel, Draft Kings, or ESPN Bet offer lines on the LLWS and Nevada’s manager TJ Fechser hopes that doesn’t change.
“We’re in a big crazy world now and if we ever see publicized sports books throughout the world standardizing it, we have to really look into ourselves. Is this appropriate?” Fechser said. “I’m not the decider on this, but I don’t want to see it being standardized.”

Amanda Vogt is a student in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.

09/07/2025

Women’s Professional Baseball League launching in 2026 offers new hope for athletes
By Alanis Thames
AP Sports Writer
www.asianreporter.com/stories/sports/2025/09-25-wpbl.htm
September 1, 2025

WASHINGTON — Victoria Ruelas was 12 years old when she made history as the first American girl to play in the Little League World Series.
That was in 1989. And while Ruelas is proud of how far women in sports have come since her childhood, she can’t help but wish there were more opportunities for them to shine. Especially in baseball, where opportunities beyond youth leagues have so often required girls to take unusual paths, most of them alongside men.
“We keep saying how much strides we’re making,” Ruelas said. “But they’re so slow in coming. It just should be faster.
“I get excited when I see girls playing and getting to go to the Little League World Series every year. But to still be one here, one there — that’s upsetting to me. There’s so much more of us out there that play.”
Ruelas and many other women have carved out their own spaces in baseball over the years. Now, the wait for something more unifying is on the horizon with next year’s launch of the Women’s Professional Baseball League (WPBL).
The league held tryouts last month in Washington, D.C. While baseball stars like former Little League phenom Mo’ne Davis and USA baseball women’s national team player Kelsie Whitmore are already signed to the WPBL, the league’s tryouts are open to all women.
That has made way for competitors of all ages to chase their dream of playing professionally. For many, the tryouts are one of the first times they’ve seen so many women’s baseball players in one place.
“I never thought I’d see this, ever,” said Monica Holguin, of Burbank, California. “You’re told when you’re younger, ‘Hey, you have to transition from baseball to softball because there’s no future in (baseball) for women.’ And so you just do it.”
The result for Holguin, 45, was turning her focus to raising her two children instead of pursuing a professional career.
“And then something like this pops up and you just say, ‘Hey, let’s just go do it,’” added Holguin, who tried out at third base. “You know, I really did it. I wanted to come out here, compete, and I wanted to show my kids, it doesn’t matter how old you are, you can chase a dream.”
Age is no deterrent for Holguin and several other WPBL hopefuls, who are trying to open doors for the next generation of girls baseball players.
Ruelas, 48, played college softball at San Jose State and was on the U.S. team that competed in the 2001 Women’s World Series. She flew to Washington from Honolulu, Hawai‘i, for the tryouts and said “until my body says I cannot do this anymore, I’d like to keep playing.”
Micaela Minner, who owns a sports training company with her wife in Akron, Ohio, has accomplished plenty in her athletic career. She played baseball until age 15. She was a softball state champion in high school. She helped Missouri’s softball team reach the 2009 Women’s College World Series. And she played professional softball with the Akron Racers in Ohio.
Minner, now 40 and retired from softball, still feels a deep pull toward baseball — the sport that she said gave her a sense of belonging growing up in the small town Sanger, Texas.
“I was angry about my being a person of color in an all-white town,” Minner said of her childhood. “I hated my skin color. And it wasn’t anything other than I didn’t fit in. I didn’t want to be different.”
Minner said her stepdad put her in baseball to keep “me out of trouble.”
Even though she played with boys, the sport made her feel part of something bigger.
“They loved me,” she said. “I fit in, and me fitting in made me love myself. And it saved me.”
Minner is trying out at first base and as a left-handed pitcher for the WPBL. She said even if she doesn’t make the league, her hope is that playing professional baseball becomes a tangible goal for younger girls.
“The goal needs to be doing whatever it takes to show girls that you can do this past high school,” she said. “You can play this sport and even get paid to play a game that men are doing. And I think that’s the goal — it has to grow. It has to be something that’s fathomable for young girls right now.”

PHOTO CREDITS:
WOMEN’S PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL LEAGUE. Toronto Maple Leafs pitcher Ayami Sato of Japan throws against the Kitchener Panthers during an Intercounty Baseball League game in Toronto in this May 11, 2025 file photo. Hundreds of women attended tryouts for the launch next year of the Women’s Professional Baseball League. Sato, 35, has led the Japan national team to six women’s baseball World Cup championships and is widely considered one of the best female pitchers ever, with a nearly 80 mph fastball and a precise curveball. (Arlyn McAdorey/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

Rakyung Kim slides into third base during the first day of tryouts for the Women’s Professional Baseball League on August 22, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

09/07/2025

Milkshakes, malts, concretes, frappes, and more: A (delicious) guide to frozen drinks
By Katie Workman
The Associated Press
www.asianreporter.com/food/2025/09-bevvies.htm
September 1, 2025

In the summer heat, we find ourselves drawn to that glorious section of the drinks menu that promises relief in the form of a cold, creamy, brain-freezing indulgence. But ordering a frozen drink looks different in different parts of the U.S., and in different restaurants and ice cream shops.
So, what is the difference between a milkshake, a malt, a frappe, or maybe even a concrete?
Geography, tradition, and local lingo all play a role in how frozen drinks are made and what they’re called.
Let’s break it down one strawful (or spoonful) at a time.

Milkshakes
Perhaps the most iconic of the bunch, the milkshake is typically a blend of ice cream and milk, blended until smooth and sippable. It’s simple and sweet. The ice cream usually forms the base flavor of the drink, and then other flavorings are involved, from syrups to extracts to fresh fruit.
At the Lexington Candy Shop, a 100-year-old luncheonette with an old-fashioned soda fountain on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, vanilla is the most popular milkshake — about 60% of all shakes ordered. That’s according to John Philis, who co-owns the shop with Bob Karcher, and whose grandfather, Soterios Philis, opened it in 1925.
Their next most popular flavors are chocolate, coffee, and strawberry, Philis said. Lexington Candy uses homemade syrups, he says, which give the shakes “a nice wow.”
Other fan favorites at the shop include the classic black and white (vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrups) and the Broadway (chocolate syrup with coffee ice cream). In the summer, there are peach shakes.
Malts
A malt is essentially a milkshake with a scoop of malted milk powder thrown in. Malted milk powder is an old-fashioned flavoring that combines malted barley, wheat flour (caution to the gluten-free crowd), and evaporated milk. It gives the drink that distinct toasted, almost nutty flavor that transports you mentally to a 1950s diner or drive-in.
Fun fact: Malted milk powder was originally created as a nutrition booster, mostly for babies, but it found its home behind the counter of ice cream shops and luncheonettes. It adds slightly richer, old-school vibes to shakes and other frozen drinks.
There are also plenty of frozen blended drinks made with frozen yogurt instead of ice cream; these are sometimes known as fro-yo shakes.
Frappes
“Frappe” might mean different things to different people, depending on where they’re from. In New England, particularly Massachusetts, a frappe is what most of us would call a milkshake, made with milk, ice cream, and usually some other flavorings.
In Massachusetts, you will hear this drink called “frap” (rhymes with “nap”), but believe me when I say there is no consensus on the correct pronunciation of the word. Sometimes a frappe from this region might simply be flavored cold milk, no ice cream involved.
There is also a genre of frappes associated with coffee-blended drinks, popularized by chains like Starbucks. Think icy, blended lattes, often topped with whipped cream. These are pronounced “frap-pays.”
Frosteds
Philis says that in New York City and other regions, a shake used to be known as a “frosted.”
“When someone comes in and orders a ‘frosted,’ I like this person,” Philis declares.
When McDonald’s and other fast-food chains started calling shakes “shakes,” the world followed suit, and the word “frosted” went out of fashion.
A frosted float, Philis explains, is a milkshake with an extra scoop of ice cream floating on top. Talk about gilding the lily!
Concretes
Then we have the concrete, an ultra-thick, creamy frozen dessert so dense that a spoon can stand upright in it. This is essentially frozen custard blended with mix-ins like candy, cookies, or fruit, but no milk is added. It’s more of a scoopable treat than a slurpable one.
Concretes are popular where frozen custard is popular — mostly in the Midwest. Frozen custard has significantly less air in it than most ice cream, and a required 1.4% of egg yolks, which gives it its signature richness.
The concrete was invented at a frozen custard shop called Ted Drewes in St. Louis. If you buy one there, the server will hand it to you upside down, saying, “Here’s your concrete,” and it won’t fall out.
Travis Dillon (whose wife, Christy, is founder Ted Drewes’ granddaughter) gave this origin story: In the 1950s, a kid named Steve Gamir used to come in and ask the guy behind the counter for “the thickest shake you can make.” Employees started leaving the milk out of Gamir’s shakes, just running the custard through the machine, resulting in a shake that requires a spoon, not a straw.
Dillon says chocolate is their most popular flavor, then chocolate chip, strawberry, and Heath Bar, but adds that there are lots of other flavors to explore, including a malted chocolate concrete — the best of two frozen-drink worlds!
Floats
Ice cream floats are the fizzy cousins of shakes. A scoop of ice cream (usually vanilla) is plopped into a glass of soda (usually root beer or cola, occasionally orange soda or a lemon-lime like Sprite) to create a frothy, sweet, bubbly concoction. Floats can be nostalgic for some folks.
Lexington Candy remains old-fashioned with their floats, making the sodas to order with syrup, stirring by hand, then adding the ice cream. In some areas of the country, you might hear a root-beer float referred to as a “brown cow.”
Ice cream sodas
Like floats, ice cream sodas are not made in a blender — but the difference lies in the fizzy base. Philis says his are made by combining the syrup of your choice with seltzer. Then add a scoop of ice cream. He says usually the syrup and the ice cream are the same flavor, but people also like to mix and match.
Smoothies
Finally a word about smoothies, the supposedly more health-conscious frozen treat. Smoothies are traditionally made with fruit, yogurt, juice, and sometimes ice. Sometimes, the fruit is frozen before it is blended into the drink. Smoothies are designed to feel virtuous, but they can still pack plenty of sugar, calories, and richness, depending on the ingredients. For instance, if you see a peanut butter-chocolate-banana smoothie, you may realize quickly that this is more about flavor than health.
So the only question is: Is there enough time left in the summer to try the whole lexicon of frozen creamy drinks? Believe in yourself. I believe in you.

Katie Workman writes regularly about food for The Associated Press. She has written two cookbooks focused on family-friendly cooking, Dinner Solved! and The Mom 100 Cookbook.

PHOTO CREDIT:
A chocolate milkshake is displayed at the Lexington Avenue Candy Shop Luncheonette in New York. (AP Photo/Guido Neira)

The Asian Reporter

09/07/2025

09/07/2025

09/07/2025

09/07/2025

09/07/2025

Address

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Category