By cool stuff I don’t mean just the Zojirushi stuff you own, I mean the icy cold desserts you can make with your Zojirushi stuff. Every month I look at the recipes on the site that I can make, hopefully within my skill level and laziness level. I came across their Ice Rice Gelato one and decided to try, even though I don’t own an ice cream maker. Spoiler alert: if you’re gonna make ice cream at home, get an Ice cream maker. No worries, I still was able to make the Rice Gelato, but it could have been easier.
Here are the steps:
1. Pretty simple ingredients. Cooked rice, heavy whipping cream, milk, sugar and vanilla extract.
2. Blend everything except the whipping cream and pour into an ice cube tray to freeze.
3. Whip the heavy cream into soft peaks and blend with the frozen cubes into a smoothie.
4. Pour everything into a container and freeze again. Make sure your container is wide enough to accommodate an ice cream scoop.
The results were pretty good for not having an ice cream maker. I think I would use less whipped cream next time just as a personal preference. I forgot the lemon zest LOL, so that might have made a difference. But overall “rice cream” is actually tasty and a good way to use leftover rice. If you have to make new rice in your rice cooker like I did, a Zojirushi one will still make perfect rice even if you only cook one cup. Seriously, this was super impressive to me—the rice still came out great with the minimum amount.
Then I made a Coffee Milkshake using my Zojirushi Coffee Maker, which again is an excellent use for leftover coffee. 
You can find recipes online for these, but basically all you’re doing is blending ice cream, cocoa powder and coffee. Pour it into a tall glass, top with whipped cream and you’re done! You can use instant coffee and milk too, but if you have leftover coffee from breakfast that’s all the liquid you need to make this shake.
Want to know how I made the chocolate swirl? Just put some chocolate or fudge syrup in a squeeze bottle and lay the glass on its side. Start from the bottom of the glass and turn it as you squeeze out the syrup. It helps to start with a cold glass so the chocolate doesn’t melt, but don’t chill the syrup or it’ll harden and won’t be usable.
Work quickly until you have the design you want, and immediately stick it in the refrigerator. The chocolate will harden in place before it has a chance to drip down the sides of the glass.
Pour your coffee milkshake into each glass and enjoy a refreshing drink for summer—this is pretty cool stuff for a coffee drinker. The one on the right here is mine. The one on the left was obviously created by someone with an abstract mind.
Summer is meant for icy cold smoothies, right? I got these cool tumblers from Zojirushi that I wanted to test, so I made some drinks and the tumblers did not disappoint, as usual.
There’s a few things I should mention about these tumblers. They’re not meant to be leak proof so they’re really desk companions, able to be by your side while you’re working or while you’re watching TV or something. As simple as that may sound, there’s some subtle features going on here that you may not know. With Zojirushi insulation, the drinks stay pretty cold for a long time—you can tell because the ice doesn’t melt so fast. The interesting thing is the outside matte finish; it’s meant to keep condensation from building up on the surface, which means you don’t have to worry about using a coaster. And the matching colored straw is pretty cool too. And the tapered bottom for smaller hands like mine.
This is a green smoothie and what goes into it (not my favorite). It’s a little too sour for me, but very healthy obviously. If you’re going to drink a salad from a cup, it better be icy cold, I always say. The tumbler helps for sure—you can take your time drinking it all. 
Not rocket science; just load your blender and hit the button.
At 30 ounces, this tumbler holds the entire contents of the blender!
This next smoothie is more my style. A chocolate banana drink that’s still healthy because I used oat milk to make it non-dairy, agave as the sweetener and cacao powder instead of cocoa. And it’s a great way to use your overripe bananas.
Smoothies are idiot proof; load it all in the blender, and push the button. Except if I had frozen the bananas beforehand I would have had a colder smoothie, so obviously some of us idiots can still blow the assignment.
All that’s left is to pour that chocolate goodness! And I know these tumblers keep stuff cold for a long time, but use common sense and drink it the same day before it gets old, OK?
That’s my cool stuff for the month—what’s yours?
Products used in this post: Stainless Tumbler SX-HA89H, Rice Cooker & Warmer NP-HCC10, Dome Brew Coffee Maker EC-ESC120
Please note that these recipes were not tested by Zojirushi America.
All images by Bert Tanimoto ©2024
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