Konpeito

Konpeito is a traditional Japanese sugar candy that was imported from Portugal in the 16th century. It is created by coating sugar syrup over many cores of rock sugar. This little colorful, star-shaped sweet comes in various flavors and is always made by hand, following a recipe which hasn’t changed for hundreds of years. The artisans use a base of sticky rice transformed into granules, irako, mixed with sugar. The process is repeated several times. It takes 2-3 weeks of hard work to produce the sweets. Imperial family use konpeito as a gift of their marriage. Recently general people also use it as a gift of their marriage and other occasions.