Iwatsuka Kuromame Warisen Black Soybean Rice Cracker Savory Soy Sauce Mini Pack

Kuromame Warisen is broken on purpose, and the soy sauce version is where that makes the most sense.

Warisen means split cracker: Iwatsuka cracks each senbei deliberately, then seasons it, so the tare soaks into the fractured inner face rather than sitting on a sealed surface.

The broken side carries noticeably more flavour than the outside, and the company says outright that some pieces will be more soaked than others — that unevenness is the product working as intended rather than a fault.

The seasoning is soy sauce built on dashi.

Iwatsuka uses tsuyu, the soy-and-stock base that underpins Japanese noodle broths, together with katsuo bonito extract, so what arrives is rounder and more savoury than a straight soy glaze.

Against it sits kuromame, black soybean, kneaded generously into the rice dough.

Black soybeans are a New Year ingredient here, simmered sweet for osechi, and in a cracker they give a toasted, faintly sweet nuttiness that the soy sauce sets off rather than covers.

Iwatsuka Seika has worked with nothing but rice since 1954, from its base in Niigata, Japan’s rice country — the company’s stated principle is that good senbei begins with good rice, and it runs its own farming operation on that basis.

This is the mini pack at 45 g, one bag for one sitting, 212 kcal.

Iwatsuka notes that the breaking process occasionally shakes a black soybean loose, which is simply what happens when you crack a cracker before seasoning it.

About this item
Item Name : Kuromame Warisen Savory Soy Sauce Mini Pack
Brand : Iwatsuka Seika
Item Form : Rice Cracker
Allergens: Wheat, Soybean
Number of Items : 30g (Pack of 1)