Samanco ice creams review

I know I have said that I will be reviewing some Korean ramyeons but I have decided to just make an article about one of the known ice cream in Seoul, South Korea other than Melona is Samanco.

Samanco is a fish shaped waffle filled with ice cream that is a product of Binggrae the same as with Melona. Basically it is an ice cream sandwich with different fillings. Maybe some of you are wondering on why it is shaped into a fish. Samanco is inspired by bungeoppang, a popular winter snack in South Korea that is usually filled with red bean or custard. If you have seen the Korean drama, Meow, the Secret Boy (also known as Welcome), you will see bungeoppang in it. When I saw it, I instantly though of Moshi Manju though not shaped into a fish. Are you familiar with all that I have mentioned above? If not then you have come into the right place as I will be sharing with you about Samanco. I cannot share anything about bungeoppang as of the moment as it is not yet available here in the Philippines and Moshi Manju becauce it has been decades since I last ate it. But you can think of it as a waffle with filling.

So now let us go over the Samanco ice creams. Have you tried any Samanco ice creams? What flavors? I cannot remember the first time that I have eaten a Samanco ice cream but it was probably a decade ago around the same year that I have tried Melona. Honestly, at first I was a bit skeptical with it because I was wondering why it was shaped as a fish. I was thinking that maybe the taste would also be like of a fish but it was not. What were your thoughts when you first saw the packaging of Samanco? Did you also think that there was something fishy about it? Well my mom did not want to eat it when my brother and I bought a few pieces back home. She insisted on eating just the Melona. Good thing that I was brave enough to try it and I instantly loved it. When our stocks of Korean ice creams ran out, my brother and I bought again since it was just outside our subdivision. I got another Samanco and that time I got the wrong flavor. I did not noticed that there was different flavors of Samanco as the first one that I have tried which became one of my favorites was red bean. I think it was green tea that I got for the second time and I did not liked it. Well that was before as I have learned to love green tea.

From then on I knew that there were red bean, green tea and strawberry flavors. Little did I know that they had other flavors and I only found out about it when my brother and sister-in-law started their business. I guess you are all excited about each Samanco flavors so let us now begin our Samanco ice cream review. Are you ready? Here it is.

Red bean flavor

- like I have said earlier that this was the first Samanco that I have ever tried. Vanilla ice cream was not that sweet and it has the right amount of red bean.

Green tea flavor

- the second one that I have tasted before. If you are a fan of green tea then you will definitely love. Similar to the red bean flavor but the difference is that instead of vanilla, it is matcha ice cream.

However, there are some Samanco green tea flavor where the waffle is color green. I bet it looks really cute in actual. That is something that I want to find in other Korean groceries.

Strawberry flavor

- imagine a McDonald's strawberry sundae but inside a waffle. That is how I thought about when I tried the strawberry flavor. Though the strawberry is a little lighter in color compared to some strawberry syrups or jams.

Chocolate flavor

- just like with Samanco strawberry flavor, you can think of Samanco chocolate as McDonald's sundae. Vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup.

Crunch flavor

- a chocolate crunch Samanco has a chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup and tiny balls of crunch. Chocolate overload? Not so but I find it too sweet. Also, I have only felt the crunch towards the end and that is when I tried I started to melt the ice cream inside my mouth so aa to know what that crunch was. I could not tell what it was but it was a tiny round crunchy cereal.

Rice cake

- I did not know that there was a Samanco mochi. It was only last weekend when we found out that there was when we went to the supplier. They informed us that they do have Samanco mochi and when I saw the packaging, I told my brother that I have already tried a mochi ice cream sandwich but from a different brand. I even told my brother that I tried it at their store and he had that puzzling face so I kept on decribing to him the package until he remembered it. That after I have tried it, I asked myself why Samanco did not have that flavor as it was good. Later that afternoon, my brother tried the Samanco mochi (and I just had a bite since I had an upset atomach that time). It had plain rice cakes and red bean inside just like with the other brand. It was not that sweet but it was chewy and delicious.

Brown sugar boba

- if there's matcha then there should also be one for milk tea lovers. This is Samanco's newest flavor, brown sugar boba. Ice cream is light brown in color and I am pretty sure that it is a vanilla ice cream infused with tea and brown sugar. It had few boba pearls. Think of it as Tiger Sugar's boba ice cream bar but in a waffle.

*Black sesame

- this one is not yet available in our store. I feel like there are only a few suppliers who buy this but we found iut about this when my sister-in-law was doing her research before. If you have already tried some black aesame ice creams, I am guessing that they both taste the same.

Now, let us go over with my recommendations. Personally, I would recommend red bean, green tea and strawberry flavors. But if you are a milk tea fan and do not like green tea, you can try the brown sugar boba. If you are craving for sweets, I would recommend the chocolate and crunch flavor.

Did this made you want to try some Samanco? What flavors would you want to eat first? I hope that this article helped you know more about Korean ice creams. I still have a lot of ice creams that I have not yet tried but hopefully I will be able to try them all before I go back home. For now, this will do.

March 23, 2022

P.S. lead image is a photo of all the Samanco ice creams available in the store.