From old times, Japanese people have always been getting creative to enjoy the coolness with all five senses using different things such as wind chimes as well as yukatas with refreshing colors, and summer sweets are also infused with such a sensibility of Japanese people.

The first one is “warabi mochi,” a classic summer sweet of Japan. It is made by mixing water, sugar, etc. with bracken starch, and it goes down the throat smoothly due to its nice and jelly-like texture. Just looking at its transparent appearance helps cool you down, and it has always been loved from old times as one of the seasonal traditions for the summer in Japan.

At Bashodo, a long-established shop reaching its 155th anniversary, warabi mochi is made with Southern Kyushu-grown 100% bracken starch and with a method called “jika daki” that requires highly-sophisticated skills, creating a soft and jelly-like texture that is pleasant to the tongue, while maintaining a nice firmness and gooeyness. The black soybean kinako (kinako is roasted soybean flour) that comes with the mochi is also made with a carefully-selected ingredient. It uses domestically-produced Tamba black soybeans that are known as the “king of black soybeans.”

It contains two packs of warabi mochi, one pack of matcha kinako, and one pack of black soybean kinako, so you can enjoy the fragrant aroma of matcha and Tamba black soybean. 本造り笑来美餅®(Hondukuri Warabi mochi) [Large box: 400g] with Matcha kinako and black soybean kinako / Tax-free price ¥1,200 (Bashodo)

The second one is a sweet from LE FEUILLES, a mille-feuille specialty brand dedicated to bringing new sensations. This is a summer limited edition of “DOUBLE CHOCOLAT MILLEFEUILLE,” which was only available during winter! The crispy chocolate-flavored dough has been carefully soaked with chocolate so that the chocolate will not melt easily even during summer. This luxurious double-chocolate sweet makes such a wonderful souvenir.

The feel of the chocolate that seeps out in your mouth is so irresistible. This one is available only during summer. DOUBLE CHOCOLAT ETE / Tax-free price ¥700- (LE FEUILLES)

The third one is a sweet made with matcha, which is deeply rooted in Japan’s traditional culture. For its refreshing aroma that spreads following a bitter taste, matcha has been one of the ingredients that are used a lot during summer. “RYO CHA no KA,” a fusion between a traditional Japanese ingredient and western confectionery langue de chat, offers a flavor that you can enjoy probably only in Japan. With white chocolate kneaded into the dough, which is made with thick matcha using high-quality tea leaves with pronounced umami, this sweet offers light bitterness as well as nice crispness that creates a sense of coolness.

The strong umami of thick matcha and a hint of sweetness from white chocolate. This one also is available only during summer. Natsumono Okoicha Langue de Chat “RYO CHA no KA” 8 pcs. / Tax-free price ¥1,112 14 pcs. / Tax-free price ¥1,945 (Kyoto Kitayama Malebranche)

Definitely check these out if you are coming to Japan this summer. We will introduce our recommended sweets for autumn when the season comes! (Information as of June 2023)