Mitsumame facts for kids
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| Course | Dessert |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Japan |
| Main ingredients | agar jelly, kuromitsu (or honey), water (or fruit juice), red field peas (or azuki beans), fruit |
| Variations | Anmitsu, mamekan, coffee mitsumame |
Mitsumame (みつまめ) is a yummy Japanese dessert. It's made with small cubes of agar jelly. This jelly is clear and white, and it comes from red algae or seaweed. To make the jelly, agar is mixed with water or even fruit juice, like apple juice.
Mitsumame is served in a bowl with boiled red peas (sometimes azuki beans). You'll often find chewy gyūhi or Shiratama dango in it. Plus, there are lots of fruits like peach slices, mikan (a type of orange), pineapple pieces, and cherries. Mitsumame usually comes with a little pot of sweet black syrup called kuromitsu. You pour this syrup over your dessert before you eat it. People usually eat Mitsumame with a spoon and a fork.
Different Kinds of Mitsumame
There are a few fun ways to enjoy mitsumame!
- Anmitsu is like mitsumame, but it has sweet azuki bean paste, also known as anko. The "an" in Anmitsu means this bean paste.
- Mamekan is mitsumame without any fruits.
- Cream mitsumame has a scoop of delicious ice cream on top.
- Fruits mitsumame is simply mitsumame with extra fruit!
- Coffee mitsumame is made with coffee jelly instead of regular agar jelly.
The History of Mitsumame
The very first idea for mitsumame came from a dessert for kids. This dessert was sold near the end of the Edo era in Japan. The mitsumame we know today was created in 1903. Later, in 1930, the popular Anmitsu dessert was invented.
Images for kids
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Mitsumame served in Asakusa, Tokyo.
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Shiratama mitsumame, with chewy shiratama dango.
