Vegan biscuits available in convenience stores

As I have mentioned before, it is relatively easy to find vegan sweets in Japanese-style confectionery stores. They are also available in supermarkets and convenience stores. As for western-style sweets, you can find vegan options sometimes under the name of macrobiotic cookies or something. Macrobiotics or the macrobiotic diet is a diet concept developed by Japanese George Ohsawa and emphasizes the balance between yin and yang elements of foods. It recommends locally produced whole foods such as brown rice, vegetables, beans, etc.

Macrobiotic sweets are basically vegan sweets that do not contain any animal products and white sugar. In Hamamatsu, I have seen them in some natural food stores, Seijo Ishii in the station building, Bio Atsumi, etc. They are quite expensive compared with other sweets and are not easily available in ordinary food stores. I think the most readily available product is Makurobi-ha (マクロビ派) made by a popular sweet brand Morinaga. I have seen it both in Seven-Eleven and Lawson.

The pack was small and contained 8 bite-sized biscuits.

In fact, I was a little disappointed to see how small they were. But they were rich in ingredients: almonds, cranberries soaked in apple juice, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, brown rice flakes, oat flakes, beet sugar, domestic wheat flour, domestic whole wheat flour, rapeseed oil, and salt from Seto Inland Sea. I ate them slowly and enjoyed the rough textures of oat flakes, seeds, and nuts and the flavor of cranberries. Beet sugar added mild sweetness.

This Makurobi-ha was put on the shelf of energy bars in Seven-Eleven. I think it can attract attention even from non-vegans with its pretty package and mark of Morinaga. A healthy and approachable image is important for vegan foods including sweets.