Zeri de Zero

A food that appears here all year round, but even more in the warmer months is individual servings of gelatin usually with fruit and/or yogurt in it.  The gelatin is related to agar rather than the animal based gelatin we use in the US. The texture is a bit different, but easy to get used to. It is cool and refreshing and not as sweet or strongly flavored as Jello.

This season there is a new product in the markets.  Phonetically it's zeri de zero - zeri being as close as Japanese seems to be able to get to Jelly.  (Jelly is what the British call gelatin.) So what about the zero? They are claiming that there aren't any calories in this stuff.  There are, however, blocks of nata de coco - the meat of immature coconut, and blocks of collagen in the gelatin. It comes in mikan (tangerine) strawberry and muscat grape (never to be confused with concord!) varieties. A bit of flavor, three different textures and no calories. What more could a sugar avoiding person ask for?