Did you know?  

Warabimochi is one type of wagashi (Japanese sweets). Warabimochi has a jelly texture but completely vegan friendly. In English it often translates as bracken starch. 

Ko - powder 

Hon - genuine  

In reality, a lot of warabimochi is not made from 100% honwarabiko. The reason is because honwarabiko is really rare and hence it is very very expensive. It is from the root of the warabi plant and very little can be extracted and produced. So you are likely to see something like honwarabiko iri (which means it contains honwarabiko, but mixed with other starch powder, such as from potato, sweet potato, renkon, etc). They helped to create a chewy and soft jelly texture.  

You will also find some cheap warabiko which contains 0% of honwarabiko at all but labeled as warabiko (usually the ones that contain 0% honwarabiko is in complete powder form rather than like broken parts as in the photo). On the left hand side you can see the honwarabiko and on the right you can see the honwarabiko iri warabiko). 

We take pride in all the wagashi we serve, including warabimochi. Both our honwarabiko and honwarabiko are from a company based in Okayama prefecture which has been supplying wagashi ingredients for over 100 years. In the past years during spring/summer, the warabimochi we served was a mixed of honwarabiko and renkon powder blend. 

When honwarabiko is cooked, you would see almost a dark brown colour instead of transparent. 

Because of how rare honwarabimochiko is, it is usually much more expensive even if you are buying locally in Japan. For us, it is 6 times the price than our honwarabimochiko and renkon powder blend. We have decided to serve honwarabimochi (and also honwarabimochi manju) when it is safe for us to reopen after mid May. We really want to introduce something special, to be served with our careful selection of Japanese tea.  And honwarabimochi is definitely something we want you to at least try once!

Perhaps you can relate to this honmirin and mirin flavourings.

PS: We stay true to offering quality products to our guests. And they are the accompanying partner to the fine quality tea we serve at the tea house. Sometimes we receive complaints about time our prices. We believe we charge fairly, considering the ingredients we use, the space our guests relax in, plus all the other overheads.