Nisshindo Nisshindo Mini Awa-Okoshi Rice Crunch

Five ingredients: starch syrup, rice, sugar, ginger and black sesame.

Nisshindo grates the ginger fresh every day rather than using paste or powder, and that is the decision the whole product turns on — the heat is bright and immediate rather than dull, and it arrives after the sweetness rather than alongside it.

Black sesame runs underneath both, toasted and slightly bitter.

Okoshi is puffed grain bound with sugar syrup and pressed into blocks, one of the oldest confections in Japan, and awa-okoshi is the Osaka version — named for millet, though rice is what goes into it now.

Nisshindo uses domestic rice and aims for a specific place between extremes: not too sweet, not too hot, not too hard, not too soft.

The texture the company is after is kari-kari, pori-pori — a dry, brittle crunch that breaks cleanly and keeps going.

Osaka has sold awa-okoshi as its signature souvenir for centuries, bought at stations and handed around on return from a trip.

This is the miniature version, cut small enough to eat in one go rather than broken off a slab, which is why Nisshindo pitches it as something to take travelling.

The company works out of Nara, has taken Monde Selection silver twice, and ranks first nationally in its category by customer data.

For anyone outside Japan, okoshi is an unfamiliar thing — closer to a rice crispy bar than to a biscuit, but drier, harder, and seasoned with ginger rather than butter.

About this item
Item Name : Mini Awa Okoshi
Brand : Nisshindo Seika
Item Form : Sugar Snack
Allergens: Sesame
Number of Items : 100g (Pack of 1)