Long-selling adzuki bean popsicle

In this blog, I have introduced many sweets containing adzuki bean paste. You may have got tired of it, but adzuki bean paste is inevitable for traditional Japanese sweets. In supermarkets and convenience stores, you can also find popsicles whose major ingredient is adzuki bean paste. The other day, I found one sold for a reasonable price (about 50 yen) at a drug store.

The manufacturer of this popsicle "Adzuki Bar (あずきバー)" is Imuraya (井村屋) that was originally a Japanese-style confectionary store started in 1896. In 1973, they released the adzuki bean popsicle. According to their website, its price was 30 yen at that time while most popsicles usually cost only 10 yen. From the very beginning, it was intended for adults. Since my childhood, I have had an image that this kind of popsicle with adzuki beans is mainly eaten by elderly people like my grandparents. So, I have seldom eaten one myself.

This time I bought it just because the price was reasonable, but I found it may be healthier compared with other popsicles and ice creams. The ingredients were only five: sugar, adzuki beans, starch syrup, corn starch, and salt. The popsicle looked like this.

I found it moderately sweet and mild. It wasn’t too hard or too soft and had a sophisticated flavor. I even thought it was more delicious than some traditional Japanese sweets containing adzuki bean paste. With a long history as a Japanese-style confectionary store, Imuraya developed such an excellent product. It surely was a popsicle for adults.