Kokutou Kinako Bun by Gokoku Japanese Bakery

This is my second post featuring Gokoku Japanese Bakery's seasonal items themed around Okinawan brown sugar (kokutou). The previous post was the Okinawan Brown Sugar Kokutou Raisin Bun, which was absolutely delightful. This time I tried the Kokutou Kinako Bun, which I loved even more.

Kokutou Kinako Bun by Gokoku Japanese Bakery

First, I must explain what toasted soy butter or perhaps kinako butter is. I first discovered it when I tried WowButter from the US, which was marketed as a peanut butter substitute. Instead of peanut butter, however, I thought it tasted exactly like roasted kinako powder. Compared to peanuts, kinako has much stronger grain, malt and earthy notes, and might less of what I might describe as the tinge of corn flavour that is prominent especially in American peanut varieties.

Kokutou Kinako Bun - view of filling inside

This bun is like a normal fluffy bun of theirs, but with a thick layer of a kokutou-kinako spread or cream filling running down the middle, as you can see in the pictures.

It is this thick spread or cream that tastes very much like WowButter Toasted Soy Butter, but with kokutou or unrefined Okinawan brown sugar added to it. While WowButter was the same shade of peanut butter (you can refer to my earlier posts linked above), this one is darker brown in colour, reflecting the added kokutou.

And the resulting taste was amazing. The dark earthiness of the kokutou complemented the kinako spread perfectly, almost like a very fragrant and deep dark roast nut butter, but I would say that the dark roast-like caramel notes came out stronger in this kokutou kinako version.

It was a tad sweet due to kokutou being a sugar, in essence, but I personally didn't find it too sweet because the bun and the fullness and nuttiness of the kinako cream balanced it out.

This taste pairing is similar to the concept of kuromitsu kinako (like in this Kuromitsu Kinako Soy Ice Cream by Chateraise) or honey and kinako (like this Matcha Kinako Honey Toast made with WowButter), and is a wonderful tried and tested winning pairing. Note that kuromitsu is actually a syrup made from kokutou, so it's essentially the same basic ingredients as kuromitsu kinako pairing, just that this bun is less sweet overall, nuttier due to the intensity of the kinako and creamier due to the spread-like consistency of the filling.

Kokutou Kinako Bun by Gokoku Japanese Bakery - price and display
While their kokutou raisin bun went down the fruity and winey route in the pairing, this one went down the nutty, toasty and earthy route in their pairing, making the 2 buns a very delightful set to explore kokutou pairings, so I recommend getting both and trying them back-to-back.
Gokoku Japanese Bakery Okinawan Brown Sugar Kokutou new buns
I will definitely want to get more of these before they take it off their shelves.

Discover other kinako themed treats...

...and other dark brown sugar, kinako and Okinawan treats

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