Hokka Hard Biscuit

Six ingredients, and that is the entire product.

Hokka makes this biscuit from wheat flour, sugar, shortening, a milk-based preparation, salt and yeast extract — nothing else worth naming — and the point of such a short list is that there is nowhere for the wheat to hide.

What you taste is flour, baked properly, which is a harder thing to sell than it sounds and the reason this has stayed on Japanese shelves for over forty years.

The method is where the money goes.

Hokka mixes the dough slowly over a long period so the ingredients are not damaged in the process, then bakes it on a 55-metre steel band oven, taking its time — a long, even bake is what produces the particular quality the company is after, which is not crunch but kuchidoke, the way the biscuit gives way and dissolves.

Hard Biscuit is firm when you bite it and then goes, leaving no chew behind.

Hokuriku Confectionery sits in Kanazawa on the Sea of Japan coast and launched this in 1978 under the name Chansu, meaning chance, before it became known simply as Hard Biscuit.

It is a plain, unfashionable, deliberately old-fashioned thing — the sort of biscuit Japanese households keep in the cupboard for tea, and the sort children here grow up with.

The 110 g bag has a one-year shelf life and nothing in it that melts.

About this item
Item Name : Hard Biscuit
Brand : Hokka (Hokuriku Seika)
Item Form : Cookie & Biscuit
Allergens: Wheat, milk
Amount of Items : 110g (Pack of 1)