Comparative Tasting of Kyoto's Must-buy Sweet "Yatsuhashi"

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    • Kansai
    • Kyoto
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    • Recommendations
  • Update date

    • 2025-01-30

When visiting Kyoto, we will definitely buy Kyoto's special sweet "yatsuhashi" as a souvenir. Yatsuhashi, first produced over 300 years ago, comes in two types: "baked yatsuhashi" with a rice cracker-like texture; and "unbaked yatsuhashi" with a chewy texture, containing bean paste. Its flavor varies in characteristics, depending on the maker. This time we will introduce some characteristics of each maker and hope that you will grow fonder of yatsuhashi.

So let us introduce "yatsuhashi" from each maker.
Producing yatsuhashi in a way that is focused on flavor, since its establishment ・・・ "Shogoin Yatsuhashi Main Store"
Since its foundation in 1689, the store has been producing yatsuhashi with the concept "flavor is tradition", putting an emphasis on "flavor" that remains delicious even in different eras. It is a store that remains particular about the flavor, spending quite some time in selecting ingredients and mixing them, even when producing new products.
・Recommended unbaked yatsuhashi・・・A luxurious unbaked yatsuhashi containing bean paste, called "LUXE", 6 pieces at 1,000 yen (tax included, the same applies hereinafter)

The one at the front has a cinnamon flavor and the one in the back has a matcha flavor.

Large-grained red bean paste (called dainagon adzuki) boiled by this maker is wrapped in chewy unbaked yatsuhashi (whose main ingredients are sugar, rice flour and cinnamon). It is unbaked yatsuhashi characterized by its rich flavor of the cinnamon, with an aftertaste of the adzuki beans. It is available with a cinnamon flavor and with a matcha flavor.

・Recommended yatsuhashi・・・"Cannelle", each formed into rolls by hand, 12 pieces, 702 yen

▲The photo shows coffee-flavored Cannelle

It is thinly-baked, narrowly-wrapped yatsuhashi and is available with a cinnamon flavor and with a coffee flavor. If you use it as a spoon when eating ice cream, its taste will become deeper. The coffee flavor also goes very well with brandy.


■"Honke Yatsuhashi Nishio", which offers a wide variety of flavors and pursues new deliciousness
It is a long-established maker founded in 1689, which started by selling simple white rice cakes made from rice flour at a teahouse. The rice flour dough and the adzuki bean paste offer an exquisite flavor. In addition to making unbaked yatsuhashi, this store produces sweets, always pursuing new deliciousness.
Recommended unbaked yatsuhashi・・・"Annama Yatsuhashi" with approximately 30 different flavors, 5 pieces, 250 yen

From front to back in the photo, yatsuhashi with flavors of black sesame, matcha, baked sweet potato, and cinnamon, respectively

The yatsuhashi is based on strained paste containing adzuki beans from Tokachi in Hokkaido, but the flavor of the bean paste varies depending on the type. In addition to the black sesame, the matcha, which are popular particularly among women, and the cinnamon, which is a classic product, there are approximately 30 other types including seasonally limited products such as one related to cherry blossoms in spring. The unbaked yatsuhashi with the baked sweet potato flavor becomes even more delicious if lightly fried in a frying pan.
・Recommended yatsuhashi・・・Japan's first chocolate that contains yatsuhashi, "Chocolate Yatsuhashi", 28 pieces, 870 yen

▲On the right side in the photo, the dark brown ones are of cacao, the green ones are of matcha, and the pink ones are of strawberry; there are three types of chocolate placed in one box.

This is a sweet produced by finely crushing homemade yatsuhashi into crunchy pieces, and is available with a cacao flavor, with a matcha flavor, and with a strawberry flavor. Each has a subtle aftertaste of chocolate and cinnamon, and offers a pleasant crunchy texture, thereby being easy for anyone to eat and very suitable as a souvenir.


■"Izutsu Yatsuhashi Honpo", which produces yatsuhashi cherishing tradition and flavor at Gion in Kyoto, where kabuki performances are held
The Ogura dainagon adzuki beans used in the paste are characterized by their largeness in size, softness in their skin, and richness in flavor and aroma. Flavorful unbaked yatsuhashi called "Yugiri", which contains Ogura bean paste, is served here.
・Recommended unbaked yatsuhashi・・・"Kabuki Meika Yugiri", which has a profound connection with kabuki and is carefully handmade by artisans, 5 pieces, 1,350 yen

▲At the cafe on the store's second floor, you can enjoy in a relaxed manner a matcha and Yugiri set. 770 yen

At Gion in Kyoto, where the Izutsu Yatsuhashi Honpo main store is, there used to be a playhouse. "Yugiri" is a Japanese sweet that commemorates the revival of kabuki, and its fan shape derives from the straw hats used in kabuki. Ogura dainagon adzuki beans produced in Kyoto are used for the paste, and the dough for the unbaked yatsuhashi is made chewy with rice flour and mochi flour. It is available with two flavors: cinnamon and Mizuo yuzu.

・Recommended yatsuhashi・・・"Izutsu Yatsuhashi", which is free of gluten and made with rice flour, without any wheat flour, 48 pieces, 950 yen


It is a cinnamon-flavored sweet in the shape of a koto (Japanese harp) proposed by koto maestro Yatsuhashi Kengyo in the Edo period. It is characterized by being flavored with white sesame, offering a very fragrant aroma, and having a crispy texture when eaten. It has a long shelf life, making it very suitable as a souvenir.

▲You can enjoy a traditional yatsuhashi baking experience by making a reservation.

■Location of each maker's main store
 ・Shogoin Yatsuhashi Main Store
   6 Shogoin Sannocho Sakyo-ku, Kyoto City
 ・Honke Nishio Yatsuhashi Main Store
   7 Shogoin Nishimachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto City
 ・Izutsu Yatsuhashi Honpo Gion Main Store
   Kitaza, Kawabata-dori Shijo-Agaru, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto City
 ※For details, please check the website of each maker.