Vegan gummi candies in Natural Lawson

On our way back to Hamamatsu from the trip to Hakone last weekend, my sister gave me a present. It was a bag of German vegan gummi candies. According to the description in English on the bag, they contain 20% fruit juice of fruit juice concentrates (apple, peach, strawberry). Look how they are beautiful.

I tasted each of three flavors. The green one had a refreshing flavor of a green apple. The yellow one may be a little too sour for a peach, but it surely had the flavor of it. The strawberry gummi candy was sweeter than the other two though fresh strawberries can be sour sometimes. I liked all the flavors. In addition, this size of bag is convenient for a trip or to eat up alone.

My sister said that she had bought the gummi candies in Natural Lawson, which is a more health conscious type of a convenience store Lawson. While the ordinary Lawson has more than 13000 stores all over Japan, Natural Lawson has stores only in the metropolitan area. According to Wikipedia, Natural Lawson sells low-calorie lunch boxes and ready-made side dishes, organic food, imported sweets, fair trade end environmentally friendly products in addition to products that are also sold in other convenience stores.

My sister isn’t a vegan nor vegetarian, so it was very kind of her to give me such a present. In Japan, the concept of vegan is still unknown to many people. But if they can often see the word “vegan” in their daily life, more and more people may get interested in it. On the bag of the gummi candies, it is clearly printed with big characters and attracts consumers’ attention even if they don’t know exactly what vegan is. I hope that “vegan　(ビーガン or ヴィーガン)” will become a common word in Japanese and will be printed on food packages as necessary. It will also help people who are allergic to dairy products or eggs.