Walk into any supermarket lately and you'll find mochi -- a small, round ball of ice cream encased in rice dough.

In just the past three years, this finger food confection has evolved from an exotic niche dessert to a mainstream product, popping up nearly everywhere, including malls, street fairs and major supermarket chains.

Mochi ice cream was invented in the US nearly three decades ago, and was originally made using ice cream flavors with an Asian flair.

"It's been around since the 1990s, but mochi ice cream was mostly available in specialty Asian food stores or on menus of Japanese restaurants in flavors like green tea, red bean and mango," said Russell Barnett, a food industry veteran and chief marketing officer of California-based My/Mo Mochi.

To help bring it to the masses, My/Mo created a flavor list most consumers felt instant familiarity with, such as chocolate sundae, S'mores, cookies & cream, strawberry, double chocolate and mint chocolate chip.

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