Egraphsen
Stephanie Cullingford
Theatrical Design
Sakuraco
Box Three - May 2021
Part Two
April 24th 2021
Last week we had double cyclones flattening small regional towns, now we've got crazy smokey hazey covering the whole of the metro area (they're blaming early burn-offs and the smoke being blown out to sea and back again) Now, without further ado: the thrilling conclusion to my review of my third Sakuraco box...
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Hazy Days
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My picture wall is growing!​
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The Food (part two)
Himesakura Kuzumochi
Hime-Sakura means 'Princess Sakura' (apparently there was a popular manga with this title in 2008) - but the reason I know 'Hime' as 'Princess' is due to the Kimono Hime/ Maximum Princess style which combines Western and Japanese vintage and/or retro clothing to create a stylin' avant-garde style. Like Warabi mochi, Kuzumochi is not a true mochi (it's not made from rice, but with Japanese arrow-root - the kuzu), but it's called that due to it's stretchy, resiliant texture.
Like the yoshino kuzumochi of Box One, the packaging is really beautiful, with clever folding ways to create the three dimensional sakura on the lid - I call this shape 'the scorpion', because, well, it's got two 'claws' and an upswept tail. The package is a little more twee and than the chic and grown-up packaging of the yoshino kuzumochi. As you can see, the jelly is pretty much transparent
The kuzumochi was a little 'softer' than the warabi and needed no coaxing to separate it from it's tub. At first, when I licked off the peel-lid, I thought that this might be sweeter than the warabi. Like the warabi, it came with kinako powder - the two powders apparently taste the same, so I used the one from the warabi on the kuzu, which might have skewed the results. I think the kuzumochi is more resilient to the spoon, but that's hard to tell. I was interested to see if my reaction to this kuzumochi would be different than the one in Box One, now that I had had more time to be acclimatised to the flavours and textures of wagashi. In particular, I thought, having only a few ingredients, the sakura flavour should be very obvious.
The sakura flavour was not very obvious.
In fact one might go so far as to suggest the sakura flavour was non-existant. Sakura, can, of course, merely refer to the colour, and it certainly is that - pale pure pink. The tasting guide told me to expect the delicate flavour of sakura, and you would have thought in, what is essentially unflavoured gelatine, any hint of cherry or even the stronger medicinal flavours that I previously identified as sakura would be screamingly obvious. I feel like I'm back to square one, not knowing what sakura is supposed to taste like. There is a hint of something mineral, but that could just be from the kinako. Not to be vulgar, but one might say that the difference between eating kuzumochi and snot is that snot is saltier - and when you add the kinako, that is remedied. There was a couple of times when the kuzumochi sliding down sometimes threatened to slide up...
Very glad I didn't try to eat both sets of 'jelly' mochi at the same time, because I just don't think I could have managed it.
Sakura Hair - don't care.
Kinako Mochi
If the kuzumochi and the wagashi are all about recreating the texture and resiliance of true mochi, the Kinako mochi is absurdly different. You get two in this box, with two different package types: one sunny yellow kiku, the other turquoise and yellow asanoha. In the tasting guide it shows them as papery and white (similar to the yokan packaging of box two), but I like these bright colours best. As you can see, they do look like mini tongue depressors (and got a little cracked in transit).
The texture is somewhere between a rice cracker and a dry meringue - the guide says they are "melt-in-your-mouth" and they're just gone! After the unrelenting softness of the kuzumochi,the crunchiness is a real relief. Having both sweets be kinako related helps define the flavour and smell for me - the toasted saltiness is very evident and each bite is a surprise, because each bite you're expecting savory - and then wondering where the rest of your bite went!
Kanten Sakura Mochi
This mochi is another non-traditional style made with agar (probably best described as a non-heat sensitive vegetarian gelatine). It looks and feels like a tougher version of Turkish Delight (if you are thinking of substituting agar-agar for gelatine in any recipe, be advised it will set hotter, quicker and harder than an equal weight). The packages have a lovely transparent pink gradient or ombre effect from top to bottom, as well as on the sakura designs. The smell is medicinal, shading towards bitter almonds (which makes sense, considering cherries and almonds are all members of the same family: plum, almond and cherry pips all contain cyanide and I believe they all taste somewhat similar). The outside appears to be covered with sugar but it feels and tastes like finely cut agar. Taste wise, it's like a bitter marzipan flavoured jube - and I am Ok with that. The texture is slightly gritty, but the sakura are clearly present, and there is that medicinal flavour that I identify as sakura - I can't quite place it, but there may be a hint of cherry. There's also a herbal character I can't place, possibly thyme?
Mini Baumkuchen
Ah, Baumkuchen. There's really not much I can say about you after last box, now is there? Once again, the packaging has a wonderful motto: Hope we could share our happiness. We wish you joy and peace.
As you can see, despite being a 'mini', there's not a noticeable difference in size between the baum in box two and this one. The rings are more even, and less distinct which makes them harder to peel, and without the coloured layers the whole thing is less eye catching than the original. It's also a bit dryer (I think) - which might have something to do with the difficulty in peeling. Like the madeline (and kanten) there is a definite medicinal smell (so - yay, sakura are supposed to smell/taste like that). The taste is bitter almond and medicinal, but still sweet. There is also a slight numbness to the tongue, which makes me think that herbal/medicinal flavour might be eugenol?
Sakura Sencha tea
As I may have mentioned during my review of box two, I don't like matcha, or green tea, or tea in general. I definitely stupidly said that I wondered if Japanese people drank matcha on a day to day basis (ok, I still don't know that they don't) - Sencha is, of course, the day-to-day tea drink. But, since I'd already made up my mind that I wouldn't be following the instructions for the fukuruku shiruko (see below), I couldn't, in good faith, quietly slip these into the tea cupboard for someone else. Firstly, the tea packets are lovely, glossy and choc-ful of Japanese designs and springtime colours, with metallic gold elements. The packages are about the usual size of a fancy individually wrapped tea bag
and are in the fashionable pyramid shape (I assume this allows the water to flow around them in an efficient manner. Something I found interesting was the instructions on the back of the packet state the water should be between 90 and 100 degrees, whereas everything I'd heard or read (including on our fancy-pants kettle) says the water should be below boiling point - so that's what I did. Surprise, surprise, the smell is very grassy, with a salty underlay (that comes from the brine pickled cherry leaves). The taste was mostly bitter, sightly grassy, slightly salty, a bit more bitter and yet - had an unexpected nuttiness. Interesting...
CLICK ME ^
Mum's Asian Style Tea Pot
Cup from T2, Moroccan collection
Fukuruku Shiruko
As you can see, the poor fugu didn't survive her trip to Australia. I'm more annoyed about this than anything because, quite frankly, it smacks of poor packing: the Fukuruku is clearly designed to fit nicely inside the coconut shell, and yet there was nothing inside the void during shipping which would surely have kept something safe/r (I forgot to take a picture of the unopened package so I can't absolutely confirm that it would have fit inside, but you would have thought...). The tasting guide provides instructions on how to make the shiruko, explaining that it is a porridge. I haven't eaten porridge since I was six when my class made it for a Goldilocks and the Three Bears related activity. I hate soggy stuff. I eat my cereal dry, and defy the world.
Tried to put Humpty together again...
Hidden in that mélange is monaka wafers, little brown crumbs, dried azuki beans, pink and white puffed rice and a square of dehydrated mochi. I stuck a corner in an errant smear of sencha left over from the tea to rehydrate it. Glad it was only the corner - I don't think I could have eaten a whole one! In the pictures (and others I've seen on the internet) the mochi looks very, very soft, almost melted-cheese gooey, so I wonder if all these I have tasted in the box are actually a little dryer than fresh, and fresh has a similar texture to the warabi/kuzu? Interesting thought. Anyway, I ate my dried mochi square whole and it tasted like mochi. The little red/brown pellets are very nice - they remind me of chocolate, possibly because they are brown. They do have a deep vanilla-esque flavour with a sweet sour-tingle flavour. Odd, but pleasant. Having eaten one of the whole dried azuki, I guess that the little pellets are azuki as well, but the bean's flavour is more of an undifferentiated sweetness and the vanilla/sour-tingle is not as strong. I think I actually prefer them dehydrated, as the 'dry' lentil/beans texture is overwhelmed by the physical dryness. Monaka wafers are monaka wafers; and the pink and white rice puffs would have disintegrated in any liquid. It must be a favoured Japanese texture, because they do seem to put them in a lot of teas/ dry-to-wet areas. The packaging would have been very striking with the white and the deep red outlining the golden coloured monaka.
That's all Folks, the Box is done, and I give it 9.5/10, for taste, satisfaction, beauty, value for money, all those good things: points deducted for the plastic coconut shell.
Again, the box had no savories and no Sakuraco Exclusives, but it had the same amount of items as Box Two: I suspect extras were put into Box One as a thank-you to those of us who signed up first.
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For happy lively time with your friends, let's relax with confectionaries
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See you in May!
~ Steph
