Fans of Apple's iPhone who just can't get enough of the
popular gadget can now travel to Japan to gobble up a tasty cookie
modelled on the popular smartphone.
A small countryside bakery in western Japan has enjoyed a
surprise hit with its "iPhone cookie", a handmade chocolate biscuit
decorated with colourful, edible application icons.
Green Gables in Tokushima prefecture pioneered the tasty treat
in 2008 as a special birthday gift for a customer's husband, said
Kumiko Kudo, the 44-year-old owner of the store.
But the biscuit gained nationwide fame after a photo of it made
the rounds via microblogging site Twitter, thanks to a posting by
two popular tweeters, economic writer Kazuyo Katsuma and pop singer
Komi Hirose.
Since then Kudo has sold hundreds of the cookies.
"It is totally surprising to have such a big reaction," she
said. "At first, the cookie was made just to meet a friend's
request and I had no intention of receiving additional orders."
In March, she presented one of her biscuits to the president of
Softbank, the iPhone and iPad's exclusive cellular carrier in
Japan, Masayoshi Son, who was quoted as saying: "I'm so happy. I
cannot possibly eat this!"
The hand-made iCookie doesn't come cheap at 2,730 yen (33
dollars), and is only available by order and inside Japan, where
the waiting time to snap up one of the biscuits has been as long as
two months.