French sweet meets Japanese tea, Kyoto’s must buy Halal souvenir!

A successful tea shop in Kyoto.

Uji (宇治) in Kyoto is known for its great green tea production. This is because the area is right next to old capital, Kyoto, and their green tea has been polished to please noble people in the city. The Uji tea, as a consequence, has been receiving great reputation in a long Japanese history, so that we Japanese may automatically imagine Grean Tea upon hearing the word “Uji”.

Nakamura Tokichi (中村藤吉) is a name of a tea shop which was named after a man who started this company in Uji in 1854. The company has been successful as Tokichi had a lot of foresight and did not hesitate to challenge new things in the tempestuous periods. Until now, the company is offering high quality green tea to the people.

Their products are not limited to just green tea. There are also souvenirs using their green tea, and some of them can be Halal or Muslim-friendly! You have to take one if you are traveling to Kansai region.

Also, check what is available at Osaka Itami Airport for Muslims.

What is “Financier”?

The product that we are going to introduce to you today is “Financier”. It is a French baked confectionery, which is using almond powder. It is baked in a small square mold and flavored with slightly burnt hazelnut butter. The surface is a bit crispy but inside is soft like a cake.

Nakamura Tokichi has made this financier as a souvenir, with their special tea flavors. The one we found in the souvenir shop had three cakes in a box, with two green tea and one roasted green tea financiers.

Details are as follows:

What is special about their financier?

Financier at Nakamura Tokichi is a western sweet while the flavor is traditional Japanese tea. It was not easy to find a perfect balance between these two different ingredients. They were not sure if they can make the best of their luxurious tea leaves, but they have finally found that it is “inevitable” to make tea flavor financier, because the product they have finally made was just perfect.

The financier has a heavier texture than expected. Upon eating the financier, there is a rich butter flavor, but the cake itself is moist. The most amazing thing is their rich tea flavor! As you can see from pictures, colors of the inside are very vivid. We can tell that they are using generous amount of tea powders.

Japanese are good at making western sweets, but in most of the cases they could contain alcohol and/or margarine. They use alcohol for a flavor, margarine to substitute butter which can be more expensive. The great thing about this western sweet is that neither of them are included according to the label!

Where to buy one?

Because Nakamura Tokichi is a popular shop among tourists, their products can be found at major souvenir shops in Kansai region. There is also one shop in Ginza, Tokyo, so you can try to buy one there, too. There are several choices, which enables you to choose which one to buy considering the number of souvenirs you need.

Enjoying their sweets at their cafe in Kyoto will also be a great experience. In the main store, there are several classes where you can learn tea ceremony. Some of them offer Soba noodle as well.

Credit: https://tokichi.jp/

Details of the shop

The product is not made as Halal or Muslim-friendly, so there might be a small risk of contamination, which we cannot be responsible of.  We are here to help you with translating the label and not judging if the item is Halal or not, please determine by yourself.