Product information
About
Konpeito is sugar: spiked, coloured crystals grown slowly rather than moulded. The taste is clean and simple, closer to the middle of a boiled sweet than to a fruit lolly. Buy it if you want a sweet you look at as much as eat. If you are expecting each colour to be its own flavour, they all taste the same — the colours are for looks, not for flavour.
On the pack: こんぺいとう. If you first met these in Spirited Away, this is the same sweet.
What you're getting
- No two pieces are the same shape. The spikes form as it grows, so nothing is cut or pressed into it.
- About 1.5 cm across, which is large for konpeito. You get a proper crunch rather than a sprinkle.
- It crunches rather than cracks, and the sweetness is soft and comes on slowly.
- The bag closes again with a zip along the top, and it needs to: sugar draws in damp air and the pieces will stick together in an open bag.
- Allergens: Read the pack's own label before you rely on ours.
If you don't finish the bag as sweets, they work as sugar: drop two into hot tea or coffee, where they melt slowly.
Japanese emergency-ration tins have packed konpeito alongside hard biscuits since about the 1930s.
Details
- Maker
- Kasugai
- Prefecture
- Aichi
- Net contents
- One bag: 76 g
Our guide
How to eat it
- They are eaten as they are, straight from the bag. The other use is in black tea or coffee in place of a sugar cube: they take a while to go, so the drink sweetens as you work through it.
- Damp is what ruins konpeito, not warmth: the sugar crystals go tacky and clump together, so keep the bag somewhere dry and closed rather than somewhere cold.
In their own words
What Japanese buyers say
- What they like
I spotted it after a long while and bought some. Each grain is big, so there's real substance to eating it — delicious.
久しぶりに見かけたので購入してみました。一粒が大きいので食べ応えあって美味しいです。
from monolog
- What they like
The colours are lovely.
色が可愛い
from monolog
- What they like
I bought it out of nostalgia, and now it's one piece as a reward when I'm tired. Konpeito looks so pretty it soothes you just to see it, and the sweetness lifts the tiredness, so lately I keep it in permanent rolling stock.
懐かしさで購入して、疲れた時にご褒美で１つ！金平糖はビジュアルが可愛いから見ると癒され、甘さで疲れも取れるので、この頃はローリングストックで常備しています。
from monolog
- What they grumble about
It was a little different from the taste I remember, but it was nostalgic.
昔の味と少し違っていましたが懐かしかったです。
from monolog
- What they like
My child loves it, so I bought it the moment I spotted it (this size isn't often on sale).
子どもが大好きで見つけてすぐに購入しました （このサイズはあんまり売ってないので）
from monolog
- What they like
That old-fashioned gentle sweetness — I love it.
昔ながらの優しい甘さ 好きです。
from monolog
- What they like
When we head to the park it's a household essential!
公園遊びに行く時は、我が家の必需品！
from monolog
- What they like
Reasonably priced and tasty.
リーズナブルで美味しい
from monolog
Real quotes from Japanese review sites (monolog), translated by us. We show no star rating from those sites.
The maker
Where it comes from
- Kasugai
- Aichi
Kasugai has been making sweets in Nagoya since 1928. Konpeito takes them over three weeks: a single sugar crystal goes into a turning kettle and syrup is added a little at a time. The spikes are not moulded: they grow out of the stickiness of the syrup, and the shape depends on the room temperature, the kettle's tilt and how fast it turns.
Product facts here are checked against the maker's own page: kasugai.co.jp (opens in a new tab)
Often bought together
-
Kasugai Konpeito Japanese Sugar Candy — 76g Bag
$4.39
You are on this one
