CoCo Ichibanya Japan Level 10 Review

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I’ve finally done it – I ate and finished CoCo Ichibanya, spice level 10 in Japan.

I’ve always wanted to try eating this level as it was the highest spice level to eat up until 2023. But after years of eating the highest levels in a few other countries as well as working at the Tameike-Sanno and Shibuya, and having a level 6 when I lived in Tokyo, I had the chance to on my trip in December.

I only had two chances to eat CoCo during my December trip so it had to be lunchtime the day before my flight home. One thing I have to say is the colour is not significantly different from a level 6 spice and that surprised me. When I worked there, I had seen level 10 be all red but this one barely had any spots of red as you can see in the video above.

Nevertheless, it’s still pretty hot but bearable. I had to take my time eating it and ordered a mango lassi and drank a lot of water to balance out the spice in my belly. One thing I forgot is that the curry roux in CoCo Ichibanya here is more runny. If you’re a cheese lover, you’ll get a LOT of cheese so it runs really nicely through the curry but does not lower the spice level in anyway. And it was SO good to have the メンチカツ (mince katsu) since it’s not available in any other country I’ve been to.

With that said, it’s definitely a little bit more spicier than what I remember and the previous post I’ve written on it so I’d give it a level 8 now.

However as mentioned above, CoCo Ichi’s spice level has gone up to level 20 as of Autumn 2023 and I’ve been told by a friend that you can’t try level 20 unless you prove you can by having a slightly lower spice level (e.g. for 15, you need to have 10, and for 20 you need to have 15-19). So that means probably due to more popularity of the brand and more consumers going there as a challenge instead of getting the correct spice level for their curry to enjoy, the spice level has stretched out to and why my level 10 tasted more weaker than I remembered.

While I wasn’t aware during my December trip, I’m hoping one day that I can go back and try level 20, then run back to my hotel room for a nap and a few lassi’s 😂