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Wagashi, or fine Japanese confections, are a representative element of Japan’s traditional culture. These miniature works of art are a crystallization of seasonal forms and ingredients and delicate flavors and aromas that delight our five senses. One indispensable ingredient of these delicacies is a sugar known in Japanese as wasanbon-to.
For most people the word “sugar” calls up the image of the snowy white sugar commonly found in household kitchens. Wasanbon sugar, however, is a pale ivory color. Sniff wasanbon sugar and you can detect a faintly sweet aroma not present in refined white sugar. It is this distinctive color and aroma that set Wasanbon sugar apart from others.
This fine-quality sugar from Japan is derived from a special variety of sugar cane called chikuto that is cultivated only in certain parts of Shikoku. The plant is comparatively short, reaching less than two meters when fully grown, and the stalks are thin, with sweetness concentrated at the root.
Chikuto is harvested from mid-November through December and processed into sugar during the winter months. Basically, juice is pressed out of the sugar cane in a mill and boiled down to draw out the lye, leaving a raw product called shiroshita-to, which literally means “sugar before it becomes white.” Shiroshita-to is allowed to stand and cool very slowly for more than a week, then the syrup is extracted and it is cooled again into a partially solid state. Water is added and the sugar is kneaded by hand, placed into wooden tubs, and pressed with stones to remove more syrup. The name wasanbon is thought to originate from this kneading process, because it used to be done on trays (bon) and repeated three (san) times. Nowadays, kneading is repeated four or five times. |
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| A row of dry confection molds in every seasonal shape imaginable including ginkgo leaves, chrysanthemums, Ayu fish, and Japanese fans. |
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