[Kisshokaryo now open in front of Fushimi-Inari Station!] Discover the unique charm of kinako with home-roasted kinako soybean powder sweets!

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08Dec2020

[Kisshokaryo now open in front of Fushimi-Inari Station!] Discover the unique charm of kinako with home-roasted kinako soybean powder sweets!

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DIGISTYLE KYOTO is an online magazine Kyoto-lover writers deliver exciting information on Kyoto, with a twist!

Content Partner

DIGISTYLE KYOTO is an online magazine Kyoto-lover writers deliver exciting information on Kyoto, with a twist!

Hello, I’m Itakura from Digistyle Kyoto and I like to have something sweet to pick me up when I’m tired.

Today, I’m going tell you about the Kyoto Fushimi Inari Kisshokaryo store that has just opened near Fushimi Inari-taisha Shrine!

It’s right by Keihan Fushimi-Inari Station at the start of the path to the shrine.

Kisshokaryo is a café where you can enjoy home-roasted kinako soybean powder and sweets made with kinako freshly roasted in the store.

The main store in Gion and the Kyoto Shijo store have attracted the attention of sweet-toothed visitors and locals alike.

This is the café area. It’s simple yet chic with wooden textures.

Yes, there are many places in Kyoto where you can eat traditional Japanese sweets made with kinako, but Kisshokaryo is a bit special.

For instance, if you want to eat a dessert made with matcha, you’d be drawn to a café in a long-standing tea specialty shop or a dessert with the words, “Made with tea leaves from XX tea shop,” right?

Kisshokaryo has its origins dating all the way back to the mid-Edo period (1603–1868) when a confectionery teahouse was first built next to the Katsura Imperial Villa. For many years, the art of confectionery was passed down and in 1934, Keikado was founded.

It sold roasted soybeans, novel at the time, for scattering on Setsubun, the day before the beginning of spring in Japan.

Since then, this shop has sought the best soybeans, home-roasting them to bring out the full flavor of each soybean brand before grinding them into kinako powder, and this is what makes it just that little bit different from ordinary kinako.

Kisshokaryo uses only high-quality Japanese soybeans from specific growing districts. With over ten regular varieties of kinako roasted in-store, there is an array of sweets to enjoy.

In other words, the store’s love of kinako is special!

This is the in-store roaster. It’s not for coffee, it’s for kinako!

The store also sells packets of kinako powder.

You can enjoy the variety of aromas and flavors of the different brands from different growing districts.

For example, kinako made from Hokkaido Kurosengoku black soybeans, called “phantom soybeans” due to the difficulty in cultivating them, and from Niigata Chadaizu soybeans, rare and hard to get. It’s fascinating that kinako can be so intricate!

And here it is, the popular Kogashi Kinako Parfait, Kisshokaryo’s signature dessert, for 1,210 yen.

On top is crispy meringue sprinkled with kinako. Crack it for a delicate harmony of vanilla ice cream, soy milk blancmange and roasted green tea jelly!

The crunchiness between the layers is a nice accent too!

Overall, its mild sweetness makes it light and a joy to eat. I devoured it first thing in the morning.

It’s great as it is, but pour on the brown sugar syrup to your liking for a whole other level of tastiness.

On top of that, each table has a small bowl of kinako so you can add extra.

What I also liked was the shop’s location and the gelato that can be bought as takeout.

There are ten to twelve regular flavors of homemade gelato available. When I went, there were three varieties of kinako gelato: Miyagishirome, Kurosengoku and Chadaizu.

I was tempted to get each of the kinako flavors to compare their tastes, but I went for a double scoop with matcha and Miyagishirome instead. The richness of the matcha gelato was also delectable.

(A double scoop is 550 yen, but matcha is a premium flavor, so it’s an extra 100 yen.)

At this time of year, try something from the limited-time seasonal menu, such as the Sakura Kaoru Shunshoku Parfait, a spring parfait with a cherry blossom aroma, for 1,540 yen, or the Harutsumi Ichigo Parfait, a parfait made with spring-picked strawberries, for 1,430 yen!

There are also baked sweets perfect for gifts or souvenirs, such as the Kinanomiya Sando with kinako chocolate sandwiched between grain cookies (810 yen for a box of five). Café, takeout and souvenirs, this store has it all.

It is definitely worth dropping by when you visit Fushimi Inari-taisha Shrine!