Exciting Holidays: Japanese Sweets

            Today I'm doing a small entry on a candy I found. Botan Rice Candy is a Japanese hard candy that has a tangy taste, which seems to be a mixture of lemon and orange.When you undo the wrapper, the candy is covered with a type of wax paper that dissolves in the mouth as well.

          I first saw it in Arkansas, in the large Walmart off Cantrell Road. The box is decorated with traditional Japanese items. One picture has an "Inu Hariko," a traditional dog toy for children. The box also has a peony flower, since "Botan," is Japanese for peony.(The Wikipedia page states this nearly word for word, but if you google both words, you will see the article is accurate.) Like you probably suspected, it is a small candy targeted to children, and comes with a sticker in every box.

       I recommend it to people who already have a sweet tooth; it's tart, but only slightly. It might feel a little wierd eating an edible paper thing, but it really doesn't do anything to the candy, and you can also take it off if you didn't want to eat it. The candy is a bit hard, but softens when you chew it. For folks looking for small foreign goodies, and/or people with a sweet tooth, this is a good confection to try. ^^