Who has never melted in front of the Susuwatari, the little balls of soot present in Chihiro's Voyage, cuddly with starry candy? Well, today I will introduce you to this candy called the konpeito.
picture source :https://goo.gl/images/KK8G7B
What is the Konpeito?
Originally the konpeito is a sweet that comes to us from Portugal, introduced in Japan in 1546 by a missionary. The konpeito recognizes itself quite easily, it resembles a small ball with a picot or even a small candy star. There are a multitude of perfumes and colors, it is besides impossible to resist these small colored balls, so kawaii!
The konpeito is the result of a long process of manufacture, it will take indeed a fortnight minimum to obtain the final candy. The base of this confectionery is a granule of glutinous rice, cooked in a cauldron turning until obtaining a paste to which is added a syrup and colored and perfumed sugar. It will be necessary to repeat the operation several times so that the candy grows and the pins are formed.
picture source :https://goo.gl/images/8KF2zT
What about the taste?
The real konpeitos are very fragrant and colorful. There is a fairly enormous catalog of taste, ranging from the basic type lemon, cherry, strawberry etc ... to more daring perfumes like sake or sakura. Limited editions can be found according to the season.
picture source :https://goo.gl/images/4Z5V4R
As for the konpeitos we found, they are industrial sweets, I would say that despite the different colors, they all have the same aroma ie sugar 🙂 A nice little ball of sugar by cons!
Where can we find them?
It is quite difficult to find real konpeitos, it seems to me that only one shop in Japan offers the traditional konpeitos, it is the confectionery Ryokujuan Shimizu in Kyoto.
As for the industrial konpeitos, you can find a little wherever you propose candy of any kind type konbini. We found ours in Nikko, in a small souvenir shop for the small sum of 200 ¥. They were packed in the shape of a flower bouquet, impossible to resist! At this price, it is the perfect memory to offer to our friends or our family! (obviously, offering the traditional konpeitos would be cooler ^ ^).
That's all I have to say about the konpeitos, I leave you with a nice video presentation of making these sweets.
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