Chestnut pieces in paste
Kinjo Seika Kuri Yokan Chestnut Jelly Bar 130g
$3.18 AUD
$2.45 per 100 gYou are looking at this one
Made byKinjo SeikaAichi, Japan
Kinjo Seika Kuri Yokan Chestnut Jelly Bar 130g
A sliceable block of sweetened bean paste with small pieces of chestnut set through it: you cut it into thin slices, the way you would quince paste.
Regular price $3.18AUD
Also in the range
How many to add
- Postage from $11.95. Postage is calculated at checkout on the weight of your parcel.
- Dispatched from Sydney within 2 business days.
- Tracked to your door with Australia Post.
Why we say this
Kinjo Seika has made sweets in Toyohashi, in Aichi, since November 1946. It is a small regional maker rather than a national brand, and its yokan are everyday supermarket bars rather than gift-tier ones.
The range
Which one do I need?
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-
Dark, red bean paste
Kinjo Seika Ogura Yokan Red Bean Jelly Bar 130g
$3.03 AUD
$2.33 per 100 g -
Pale, white bean paste
Kinjo Seika Neri Yokan Pale Red Bean Jelly Bar 130g
$3.03 AUD
$2.33 per 100 g
Product information
About
A sliceable block of sweetened bean paste with small pieces of chestnut set through it: you cut it into thin slices, the way you would quince paste. The chestnut is gentle: a background sweetness rather than a roasted-chestnut hit. So it suits you if you want a gentler bar, and not if you want something that tastes emphatically of chestnut.
On the pack: 栗ようかん (kuri yōkan). Kuri is chestnut; yokan is the sweet itself, a block of sweetened bean paste.
What you're getting
- The honest bit first: the chestnut is subtle. The pieces are small, and you may well have to go looking for the flavour.
- How it differs from our other two yokan. Same maker, same 130 g bar, three ways. The other two are both red-bean bars, one dark, one pale, and what separates them is the paste they are built on rather than the beans. This is the odd one out: chestnut pieces instead of whole beans. They are easy to mix up on a shelf.
- Agar, not gelatine. Like the rest of the line it sets with kanten, a jelly made from seaweed, which is what lets you cut a clean slice instead of a wobble.
- Slice it thin. It is a solid 130 g of sugar-set sweet. A bar might be one sitting or three.
- Allergens: contains chestnut. Neither Japanese nor Australian labels have to flag chestnut as an allergen, so the pack names it only in its ingredient list (chestnut). If you avoid it, look for it by name in the ingredients.
Two things worth knowing before it arrives. It is a plain, understated-looking block rather than a bright one, and that is not the sign of a poor one. And like its siblings this is the everyday end of the category in Japan: the big unfussy bar off a supermarket shelf rather than something from a gift counter, which is what makes it a sensible way to find out whether you like yokan at all.
If you met something like this in Japan and never learned its name, our guide what was that Japanese sweet? names the whole family. Yokan is the one built to keep, which is why it travels, and why it is the one we can put on a shelf here.
Allergens
- Contains
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- Chestnut
For your safety, please check both the information on this page and the printed label on the pack. If anything is unclear or the information differs, please contact us before consuming the product.
Details
- Maker
- Kinjo Seika · Aichi
- Made in
- Japan
- Net contents
- One bar: 130 g
Our guide
How to eat it
Good to know
- Cut a thin slice across the bar rather than biting into it: it is dense, and a thin slice is a serving.
- Open it slowly from one end: the wrapper is a little hard to peel, and a rushed opening leaves your hands sticky.
- Once cut, the exposed face slowly dries and sugars over, so keep it wrapped rather than open on a plate.
In their own words
What Japanese buyers say
- What they grumble about
I didn't really taste the chestnut.
あまり栗は感じなかった
from monolog, a Japanese review site
- What they like
The chestnut flavour is tasty and it's cheap!
栗味が美味しくて安い!
from monolog
- What they grumble about
Light. I thought it was an extremely light yokan, like a mizu-yokan — the softer, chilled kind. A watery impression. The bean-paste flavour is on the weak side too. Small chestnut pieces were in there, but they didn't have much presence in the taste.
あっさり。水ようかんのようなすごいあっさりしたようかんだと思いました。水っぽい感じ。あんの風味も弱めです。栗の小さい粒がはいってましたがそんなに味の存在感は無かったです。
from mognavi, a Japanese food and drink review site
- What they like
A long, thin chestnut yokan with real eating satisfaction. I ate it in three sittings. It was delicious.
長細い食べ応えのある栗羊羹です。3回に分けて食べました。 美味しかったです
from monolog
- What they like
It's exactly a finish-it-off size, so I buy it often.
ちょうど食べきるサイズなのでよく買います
from monolog
- What they like
Chestnut — delicious.
栗 美味しい
from monolog
- Mixed feelings
Swee-eet. If you don't open it well your hands get messy, but it's cheap so it's fine.
あまーい。上手く開けれないと手が汚れるけど、安いからあり。
from monolog
- What they grumble about
It seems I bought it by mistake, thinking it was the neri one.
練と間違えて買ってしまったようです。
from monolog
- What they like
For serving with tea.
お茶菓子に
from monolog
- What they like
I like yokan, and it looks like it could double as emergency food. For now I'm storing it away.
羊羹好きなので非常食にもなりそうです。とりあえず保存しておきます
from monolog
- Mixed feelings
Even among Japanese yokan, this one has a very good flavour for how reasonable the price is. The one shame is that on the mail-order site you can't tell the best-before date.
日本の羊羹の中でも、この羊羹は価格がリーズナブルなのに風味がとても良いです。ただ、通販サイトで賞味期限がわからないのが唯一残念です。
from yahoo
Real quotes from the review sites named on the cards. We show no star rating from those sites.
The maker
Where it comes from
- Kinjo Seika
- Aichi
Kinjo Seika, a confectioner in Aichi prefecture in central Japan, makes jelly, yokan and baumkuchen. It began producing jelly in 1951 and was drawing up an export plan for Hawaii and the American mainland by 1961.
It is not a famous name. In October 1981 the Japan Food Hygiene Association commended its factory as fully hygiene-equipped; it was audited against ISO 9001, the international quality-management standard, in 2005, and ISO 22000, the food-safety one, in 2019.
Product facts here are checked against the maker's own page: kinjoseika.co.jp (opens in a new tab)
Often bought together
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Kinjo Seika Kuri Yokan Chestnut Jelly Bar 130g
$3.18 AUD
You are on this one
