Akaibohshi baked sweets
It is fun to look around for souvenirs when traveling.
I look for new confections that are not standard such as “Hakata Dorimon” from Meigetsudo in Fukuoka, “Haginotsuki” from Kasho Sanzen in Miyagi, and “Shiroi Koibito” from Ishiya in Hokkaido, but I find myself adding Monde Selection award-winning products to my shopping cart.
To be honest, I don’t know anything about this quality evaluation organization, nor am I interested in who judges them, but I am afraid to put all my trust in the labels on the boxes of the products.
Especially when I see a promotional pop-up or label that says “Highest Gold Award Winner,” I carry the product to the cash register without even looking at it any longer.
It is the same with “packet buying” and “label buying,” where one decides to purchase based on the package design alone.
Last year, I visited a mini factory of “Chibori Yugawara Sweets Factory” and saw an assortment of “Akaibohsh” baked sweets, which had won the Monde Selection top gold award for nine consecutive years.
When the magic words “highest gold award” and “nine consecutive years” are added, one no longer stops to think, but rather feels that “if I don’t buy it, it will be a loss…“! I’m not sure I’ll ever stop to think about it.
Curiosity for new textures and sensations
The promotional word in the stores that has changed this long-standing, self-serving mindset is “new experiences“.
You may have heard of “Gummitzels,” introduced in one of the few popular articles on this blog, “Not that I live here” I still remember the shock I felt when I had it for the first time.
They are rarely sold at Hitotsubu Kanro’s online store, but they sell out quickly, so if you want to buy one, check the blog for more information, and then get in line at the Gransta Tokyo store.
Other new items include the “Sbrisolona,” a butter sandwich with a thick buttercream sandwiched between corn flour and almond dough, and Ginza Restaurant Air’s new sensation, “Nama Marshmallow,” a fresh marshmallow filled with fruit compote and chocolate ganache and frozen with a fruit sauce on the surface.
The only way to find out for yourself is to buy and try the products that you can’t imagine from the outside, such as the “Raw Marshmallow”.
Perhaps it is curiosity about the unknown that motivates people to buy rather than trust in the Monde Selection.
Unlike me, a member of Generation X, who has lived my life according to my heart’s desire, Generation Z is more solid than I imagined.
They will not buy products that are not cost-effective even if they have gold labels on them, and they will not loosen their purse strings just for a new sensation.
They will buy or not buy based on whether or not the product is “Instagrammable,” which helps them become “connection oriented.“
They cannot accept the spirit of self-reliance such as an one quietly eats the food and says, “Oh, it tastes so good! or “I’m curious about the taste, so I’ll buy it!”.
If I were to name one of these “attractive” sweets, it would be the mille-feuille “mille-plaisse,” a new type of mille-feuille.
It is made with homemade custard cream, including mont-blanc, pistachio, lemon, and seasonal fruit, and caramelized on the surface with a 100% fermented butter pie crust baked to the size of the palm of your hand (14.5 cm in diameter and 2.5 cm in height).
The mille-feuille is not only cute but also new in that it can be held in one hand and eaten with the other.
It is available for purchase on the first floor of Grand Front Osaka Umekita Plaza at the central north exit of Osaka Station, so if you happen to be in the neighborhood, be sure to stop by.
Third Door Perspective
When talking about souvenirs, Hokkaido is a place that cannot be left out.
Ishiya “Shiroi Koibito”, Royce “Nama Chocolate”, Rokkatei “Marusei Butter Sandwich”, and LeTAO “Deubre Fromage” are well known to everyone.
If these well-known products are brought back home and distributed to family, friends, and colleagues, they will serve their purpose as gifts to share the atmosphere of the trip.
However, my personal preference would be to hand them out with envy.
All of the standard products are delicious, but the recipient’s impression is not, “Wow, this is great! they will just say, “Oh, I see..”.
Only students on a school excursion will be pleased with a satisfactory score, and working people should have ideas and suggestions that exceed the expectations of the recipient.
Some may worry, “Surprises are great, but what if I buy a souvenir that I don’t understand and am disappointed?“
For you, I offer the words of physicist Albert Einstein.
“A man who has never failed or been frustrated means that he has never tried anything new.“
Envy can only come with a challenge.
However, since I cannot bear to leave a lost lamb unattended, I will not conceal the ways to increase the probability of success in the souvenir challenge.
First, just look at the Monde Selection awards.
Since the technical standard of the product has been evaluated, a certain level of trust should be guaranteed even if the product is not well-known.
In addition, if the product fails, you can insure it by saying, “I had high expectations for this Monde Selection award-winning product, but it didn’t turn out so well…”
Second, choose a product that has been in the news.
In Hokkaido, this would be the “Snow White Cheese” at Daimaru Sapporo or the “Snow Sandwich” at New Chitose Airport.
If you are willing to wait in line, you can almost certainly pull off a surprise.
If you don’t want to live a life of acquiescence to Monde Selection award winners, don’t follow the news on sweets, and don’t like waiting in line, try the “third door“.
It’s simple: go to any of the stores that sell the hottest products, such as Ishiya Seika, Lloyds, Rokkatei, Lutao, Hokkaido Confect Group, etc., and look for “new souvenirs”.
LeTAO’s classic cheesecake is the “Douvre Fromage,” a combination of fresh cream made from Hokkaido milk, Italian mascarpone cheese, and Australian cream cheese.
However, the souvenir I chose from the Lutao New Chitose Airport store was “Maalu Gâteau Noir,” a crunchy chocolate made from the French baked cake “Fontaine“.
The crunchy flakes with a taste of wheat are well coated with rich tasting chocolate like Sachertorte.
The crunchy taste of the chocolate is followed by the sudden sourness of the dried apricots, making this a product that can be enjoyed from the texture to the change in taste.
When the timing of the compliment on the souvenir was right, you said, “LeTAO is not named after the upside-down name of the place in Otaru (If you read it in hiragana, it’s upside down), but the acronym for the fashionable Otaru Confectionary Shop tower-like store in French “Le Tour Amitie Otaru (Dear Otaru’s Tower)”!, you are sure to get a second round of accolade.
When you hand over your best souvenir, “What is this, maybe for the first time!” you should recite Einstein’s words in your mind.
You will surely become a master of souvenirs.
