black sugar pocky

We picked these up at a little store specialising in Okinawan products at Decks/Joypolis in Odaiba, after cheering on our friend in the Tokyo Marathon. (Somehow we managed to pass on the many varieties of spam including Garlic, Low Fat and Hot & Spicy.)

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Japanese black sugar (kuro sato 黒糖) is essentially the same as brown sugar/mollasses, made from sugar cane harvested in Okinawa and parts of Kagoshima prefecture. It's less refined than white sugar, and considered to have some health benefits as Mari explains. It's usually used in baking, eaten by the lump or in coughdrops and other hard sweets.



Having some kuro sato in the kitchen cabinet I took it upon myself to do a taste comparison (oh the hardship!) and the flavors were a perfect match, with the slightly smokey smell and spicy sweet aftertaste that inspired me to sneak teaspoons of brown sugar from the pantry when I was a kid. Yum!