Ragunoo Sasaki (Hirosaki City) released ``Chiikawa Polo Chocolat Banana Milk Flavor'' on December 26th at Ragunoo stores.

A collaboration product between the company's signature product "Polo Chocolat" and the popular product "Chiikawa". "Banana Milk Flavor" is an original flavor created for the same product that is based on "Polo Chocolat White" and contains banana puree. One fork with the design of Sasumata, who appears in the same work, and one original sticker of all six types will be randomly attached.

Pre-sales began on December 22nd at all Chiikawa Land specialty stores and New Days stores in the three Tohoku prefectures, and many stores are selling out. Yuki Hosono of the product planning section of the company's marketing department says, ``It's been more popular than we expected, so we haven't decided when it will be shipped in the future.'' Ragnoo Hirosaki Hyakukokucho Main Store (Momokokucho, Hirosaki City) also started selling at 8am on the 26th, and sold out by 10am.

The collaboration project started a year ago, and ideas such as original flavors and forks with the Sasumata design were born. Hosono said with a smile on his face, ``This project made me realize for the first time how many Chiikawa fans there were within our company.The factory staff also seemed to enjoy putting in the stickers, and their morale was higher than usual.''

Polo Chocolat is a popular product of the company that has been selling it for over 20 years, and its concept is ``a cake that is as close to chocolate as possible.'' Currently, we have over 10 standard flavors and limited edition flavors. This is the second collaboration with the character. Mr. Hosono said, ``There are customers who learned about Polo Chocolat through the collaboration, and there are also local people who came to buy it for their grandchildren, so I think this is leading to an increase in awareness. We are preparing a production system that will allow us to do so, so please be patient for a while."

The price is 638 yen. The arrival status will be announced on the company's X (formerly Twitter).