Japanese Hard Candy: Shoyu Ame

Sawai Shoyu Honten Soy Sauce Candy 澤井醤油本店 醤油の飴
Sawai Shoyu has been in business in Kyoto since 1879 and makes the premium quality brand of Marusawa Soy Sauce. The immediate neighborhood smells nearly oppressively of fermenting and brewing soy sauce and the old wooden store houses can be seen at the back of the site.

I have used Marusawa shoyu and ponzu for several years but when I stopped by the other day to get my favorite grapefruit ponzu I spotted this hard candy flavored with soy sauce. I have seen this kind of candy before but I don’t recall ever eating it so I picked up a bag.

The sauce that is poured over mitarashi dango grilled mochi dumplings is sweet and shoyu based. I don’t much like it but it is very popular with Japanese and this confection was invented in Kyoto centuries ago.

Award Winning Soy Sauce: Marusawa Brand Shoyu

Award Winning Soy Sauce: Marusawa Brand Shoyu

How did soy sauce candy taste?
It hardly tasted of soy sauce. It tasted like hard candy with this, hmm, what is that taste in there? If I hadn’t known that it included shoyu, I doubt that I would have caught it, it was that subtle. Actually, I think that the taste was a bit too understated. Obviously, a little shoyu goes a long way — with anything, especially candy! However, my tongue wants to know what it is that I am eating. It is not enough for my eyes to just read the label and know.

There is a concept in Japanese cuisine called kakushi-aji, literally ‘hidden taste’. A hidden taste is what it sounds like. It is there, you pick it up but it is not quite pronounced enough for most people to be able to isolate it and identify it. For example, in Kyoto-style sushi, quite a bit of dashi broth is used to make the sushi rice. If you just taste the sushi rice, you can’t miss it. By the time it becomes sushi, it isn’t a prominent taste but it does add depth and complexity to the overall flavor.

I see the shoyu in this candy as fulfilling the function of a kakushi-aji but it is billed as the main event on the package. I doubt that was the makers intent, but that is how it comes off for me. Whatever the case, it is a contradiction. I think that if they doubled the amount of soy sauce they put in, it would be just right. But, I could easily be wrong! I think this is a tough combination to get just right. But this is Kyoto, it has to be just right!

There is a shinise that makes salt flavored hard candy that I sometimes but, it isn’t from Kyoto. It is out of this world, and I don’t even like salt! That candy is subtle and delicate yet you know you are eating salt flavored candy. So, I think my ideal is possible.

Nevertheless, I like this shoyu ame candy quite a lot and it would make a novel and tasty omiyage souvenir to bring back home.

Shuyu Ame Package

This is a very lame package design with lots of plastic waste. It needs some serious kaizen. Too bad.

Marusawa Shoyu Honten Machiya Facade

Marusawa Shoyu Honten Sign

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Map to Sawai Shoyu Honten

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Gion Koshi, ameya (candy shop) is surely the best known place in Gion, and probably Kyoto for kakigori (shaved ice). Shaved ice in Japan actually has a very long history, dating back more than a thousand years to a the Heian period, which incidentally, is when Kyoto, then called Heian-kyo (平安京), was founded.

Gion Koshi is famed for it’s Wagamamagori, being a very luxurious kakigori. Gion Koshi’s most famous is kokuto (literally black sugar), select from Okinawa.

History
Yes, kakigori, even though it is a summer staple of convenience stores, festival night stands and other lowbrow venues has it’s roots in the Heian period as a very extravagant summer treat enjoyed by the imperial court.

Kyoto, situated in a basin, 78% surrounded by mountains, is stifling in summer. Imperial ice was produced and preserved in Yagi-cho, a days journey from then ‘Heian-kyo’.

Sei Shonagon (清少納言) mentions this delight in her diary, The Pillow Book (枕草子) a thousand years ago.

Ice was shaved in a steel apparatus, and was called kezurihi (削り氷). Kezurihi was flavored with a sweetener derived from, perhaps a vine, scholars are not certain. This sweetener itself was a very precious item, often administered as medicine.

A thousand years ago, kezurihi must have been quite a summer treat, indeed!

Modern-day kakigori was invented in bustling port of Yokohama in 1869 and the ice shaving machines became a common sight throughout Japan by the 1920′s.

Mise (店)
Gion Koishi, while being the premier destination for kakigori and parfait in Gion and Kyoto now only has a history of some 70 years. It started out as an ameya (candy store), Japanese style candy, of course. These are hard, sweet candies in natural and seasonal flavors. Gion Koishi’s kokutomitsu (黒糖蜜), a syrup derived from the traditional Japanese ‘black sugar’, is surely it’s signature product. There are some great images on this webpage of kokutomitsu production. Gion Koishi uses only select kokuto from Okinawa. It is selected in Okinawa but blended here in Kyoto.

This famed kokutomitsu can be purchased to take home and is used on some of Gion Koishi’s most famed desserts. Kokutomitsu would make a great omiyage (お土産) gift to take back home. Gion Koishi’s kokutomitsu ought to go very, very well on vanilla ice cream. Of course the hard candies are light weight and travel well.

The sit down area of the restaurant is a bit of a disappointment, the interior is a rather crude, cheap and dimly lit space, not at all in keeping with the culinary delights available.

Dishes and Tastes
I visited Gion Koishi twice in the last few weeks and had kakigori both times.

By the way, kakigori is a summer time dessert. Gion Koishi serves it until the end of September. Ducking in on a hot summer day for some exquisitely flavored shaved ice, is a great way to get refreshed! Gion Koishi serves winter oriented dishes as well, that we will review later when Kyoto is sufficiently bone chillingly cold.

On to the signature dishes — Wagamama kakigori. Wagamama in modern Japanese means ‘selfish’ and is usually used negatively. Here it implies a splurge and spoiling yourself a bit with these lavish shaved ice creations.

Wagamama kakigori features a bed of kanten (寒天) jelly cubes in three natural flavors, mochi, and some azuki paste, on top of this is the shaved ice. Amongst the shaved ice are some whole, sweet azuki beans and on the very top is a candied Japanese chestnut.

The shaved ice is then flavored with a generous dousing of sweetened Uji green tea or rich milk and kokuto syrup.

These are eaten with a spoon and the hidden, bite-sized treasures inside are revealed little by little.

Another staple of Gion Koishi are the parfaits. Japanese styled parfaits are extremely popular with Japanese women. The parfaits feature the same repertoire of ingredients (kanten jelly, mochi, azuki), plus rich ice cream and slices of seasonal fresh fruit, all topped with whipped cream. Gion Koishi’s parfaits are excellent and well worth a try!

Wagamamagori Kokuto Miruku (わがまま氷黒糖ミルク)

Wagamamagori Kokuto Miruku (わがまま氷黒糖ミルク)

Wagamamagori Uji (わがまま氷の宇治)

Wagamamagori Uji (わがまま氷の宇治)

Maccha Parfait (抹茶パフェ)

Gion Koishi Storefront Showcase

Gion Koishi Storefront Showcase detail, the ubiquitous ‘plastic food’ on display

Gion Koishi take away goodies – hard candies

Gion Koishi take away goodies – Gion Koishi’s famed ‘kokutomitsu‘ (black sugar syrup)

Gion Koishi Storefront

Gion Koishi second floor art exhibition:

This exhibition is a real treat. It is about 30 traditional Japanese woodblock prints of the storefronts of old and famous traditional shops (老舗, shinese) in Kyoto. On the left is an umbrella shop and on the right a fan shop.

English:
menu: Gion Koshi has an English menu (with weird English)
staff: staff is friendly and seems to speak a little English
website: Gion Koishi’s website is very beautiful, lots of great images. (Japanese language only) It even contains ‘knowledges‘.
map: while just a ‘map’ this image shows the care often put into making something simple beautiful

Location:
Gion Koishi is another popular tourist destination and is also very popular with local residents as well. (Often places popular with tourists are scorned by locals.)

This is another destination in Gion that will not bankrupt you and where you can enjoy fine Kyoto desserts. Plan on spending about 800 to 1000 yen for a dessert.

Gion Koishi is on the north side of Shijo Street (四条通り) about a 1 minute walk from the gate of Yasaka Shrine (八坂神社) and Maruyama Park (丸山公園). Definitely worth a visit if you are in the neighborhood or you are interested in some popular Japanese desserts.