Warabimochi

Looking like little cubes of clouded glass or wiggly dew drops, this delicate jelly is famously "toro-toro"—rich, creamy, and melt-in-your-mouth. The bouncy, refreshing jelly is unflavored on its own, so it's drenched in nutty, roasted soybean flour and a rich, dark sugar syrup.

How It's Made

True warabimochi begins with warabiko, a rare starch painstakingly extracted from the underground roots of wild bracken ferns. This starch is dissolved in water and sugar, then heated and stirred continuously until it rapidly transforms into a thick, sticky, translucent paste. Finally, it is flash-chilled in ice water to set, chopped into bite-sized cubes, and tossed in roasted soybean flour.

The Story

This elegant dessert boasts a truly aristocratic history, dating back over a thousand years to Japan's Heian period. Because digging up wild fern roots and extracting their starches by hand was such an incredibly labor-intensive process, warabimochi was originally an extreme luxury reserved for royalty, and it was famously a favorite delicacy of Emperor Daigo. By the Edo period in the 1600s, production methods finally improved and trade expanded. The royal treat made its way to the public, becoming a beloved, refreshing snack sold by street vendors and tea houses to weary travelers on hot summer days.