What are Japanese Candy?
Sweets from Japan can be figuratively divided into three categories:
Traditional – mochi, wagashi, dango, dorayaki, yokan.
Modern sweets, but by new standards-Japanese kit kat, marmalade, Pocky sticks.
Unusual Japanese sweets – lettuce-flavored cookies, marshmallows with collagen, donuts in the form of cats, ice cream with champagne.
Traditional sweets.
They appeared in Japan in the VIII century. Along with Buddhism, rice processing technologies penetrated from China and mochi and dango – cakes made from glutinous rice-began to be made on the Japanese Islands. At that time, they were used during ceremonies, as they were a rare and expensive delicacy.
Modern sweets by Japanese standards
Chocolate, sweets and cookies in the form in which our contemporaries used to see them-in beautiful and bright packages-became known around the world at the end of the XX century.
By this time, the Japanese had already begun to cooperate with Western and European colleagues, make sweets for export and open branches of large companies in other countries.
But since the mentality and culture of the Japanese is very peculiar, even in such ordinary and familiar sweets as chocolate and cookies, something unusual began to appear.
This is largely due to the perfectionism of the Japanese, who responsibly approach all stages of production (more on this below), and also because of their special sense of beauty, bordering on eccentricity.
So, for example, there were Pocky-the usual straw in the Japanese version, which has become almost a national symbol. What about Ramune lemonades, which still need to try to open because of the strange lid-ball?
Unusual japanese sweets
People in Japan are special, so all Japanese sweets are unusual.
Strange Japanese tastes like wasabi added to ice cream are not so strange for a Japanese. unusual tastes and beautiful and convenient packaging – this is what the japanese love so much. That's why there are so many amazing products in this country. Chips with the taste of scrambled eggs with bacon, sweets with a layer of green tea matcha, chocolate with sweet potatoes, chestnut, sake - these are the usual treats for the Japanese.
There are also many seasonal sweets in Japan. Sakura blossoms all over Japan? It's time to make cherry-flavored desserts. The maples begin to change color in red? So it's momiji season! It's time for cakes with adzuki paste in the form of maple leaves.
Customization of the product is just crazy – a good example would be kit-kat, which is produced for each zodiac sign with a separate taste.
Despite the fact that Japanese innovative solutions have generated a number of unusual sweets that are not found in any country, traditional treats still have a good demand. Mochi is still the best gift for the new year.