Kanro Non-Sugar Wakan Biwa Throat Candy

Four ingredients, and three of them are doing unusual work. Kanro builds this candy on herb extract, propolis extract and reduced starch syrup — no sugar at all, and nothing resembling the menthol blast most throat sweets lead with.

What comes through instead is herbal and rounded: a soft bitterness up front, resin depth behind it, and the gentle sweetness of loquat running underneath.

The colour comes from safflower and gardenia rather than synthetic dye.

Wakan means Japanese-Chinese, and it points at the herbal tradition that arrived from China and developed its own character over centuries here — the same word behind kanpō, Japan’s herbal medicine.

Biwa is the loquat, a small orange stone fruit that grows across southern Japan and whose leaf has been used in household preparations for generations.

Propolis, the resin bees seal their hives with, has a long history in Japanese throat products.

Kanro has put all three into a single hard candy rather than a capsule, which is a very Japanese way of approaching the idea.

The sugar-free construction is the other half.

Reduced starch syrup replaces sugar entirely, giving 9.8 kcal a piece and zero sugars by Japanese labelling standards, which makes this an unusually light thing to keep in a pocket through a dry winter.

Kanro is the company most associated with nodoame in Japan, where throat candy occupies a whole aisle of its own — reached for when the air turns dry, bought by teachers and singers and anyone who talks for a living.

The 80 g bag holds individually wrapped pieces.

One practical note from the manufacturer: the sweetener is poorly digested, and eating a lot at once can temporarily loosen the stomach.

About this item
Item Name : Non-Sugar Wakan Biwa Throat Candy
Brand : Kanro
Item Form : Candy
Amount of Item : 80g (Pack of 1)