Interesting Karinto Flavours: Spiced Gobo (Burdock), Purple Sweet Potato, Coffee and Pumpkin Karinto by Azemichi Group

I recently saw a series of interestingly flavoured award-winning karinto selling on Amazon Japan by the Azemichi Group (畦道グループ). (The product listing is under Ridemichi, but it is a transliteration error as the packet label says "Azemichi" in Japanese.) It is handmade in Oita Prefecture by a local women's cooperative with local ingredients. It won the top award (農林水産大臣賞) organised by the relevant Japanese government ministry, which every prefecture nominates its top products for, resulting in about 450 entries. So I thought it was worth trying.
Spiced Gobo (Burdock), Purple Sweet Potato, Coffee and Pumpkin Karinto by Azemichi Group
I ordered the spiced burdock, purple sweet potato, coffee and pumpkin flavours as some of the others came in packs too large for me to finish or did not seem available. I especially love snacks that are naturally flavoured with vegetables, so this was great for me.

Before I go into the individual flavour reviews, the first thing to describe about these karinto is that they are very hard and crunchy, such that you will be loudly heard as you crack down on it, and might feel a bit of pain if you have sensitive or cracked teeth. (I was fine, but a companion declined to try after hearing me crunch on them.) It is exactly the texture of the hard pretzel snacks you get on planes or as junk food from the supermarket, or like the Chinese mahua shelf-stable snacks grocery stores, but because each stick is much thicker than a pretzel or twisted mahua, it is denser and harder to the bite.

Karinto are sometimes described as Japanese donuts made with Okinawan brown sugar or kokuto, but apparently the softer versions that are similar to old fashion donuts (such as the Yuzu Karinto and Sesame Karinto from Provence) are more typical of the Kanto or Tokyo region, whereas eastward of that, from around Kansai, Osaka and Kyoto, their versions of karinto starts becoming the hard stick-like snacks you see here.

The difference in texture is due to the fermentation time. The hard versions ferment for a much shorter time, so when they are deep fried, they end up becoming like other dry snacks in the supermarket such as Snyder's or individually wrapped mahua.

Furthermore, while karinto is traditionally made with Okinawan brown sugar, these use sugar instead, based on the ingredients list.

Although I did not order the plain flavour, after trying the various flavours, I would say the base taste comes closer to mahua of the dry snack variety. Or like dry snack pretzels without their malty or burnt notes.

Purple Sweet Potato Karinto
Purple Sweet Potato Karinto by Azemichi Group
First, I need to note that the purple or lilac hue was much more prominent than my camera could pick up. The surface was like a slightly browned somewhat dark pastel purple, not nearly as brown as the photo looks. The inside was a lighter shade of pastel purple.

I tried this first, and despite not having tried the other flavours yet, was somewhat disappointed that the sweet potato flavour was very mild. I was probably expecting a lush and fragrant taste of honey and floral notes due to the obvious purple colour and from my previous experiences with purple sweet potato snacks. 

Nonetheless, there was a mild sweet potato flavour that was distinguishable, which came across as earthy, nutty and very barely fragrant, although the fragrance was too vague to be called floral. At best, a sweet or creamy fragrance. However, since they list honey in the ingredients list, that may have come from the honey.
Purple Sweet Potato Karinto by Azemichi Group - ingredients list
What is good is that you do get to enjoy the natural taste of fried eggy dough, and the subtle sweet potato notes play a supportive role to enhance the fried dough taste.

Coffee Karinto
Coffee Karinto by Azemichi Group
This flavour was a lot more intense, fragrant and complex, and I quite liked it. There was also a clear coffee shade and it was significantly darker in shade than the other flavours.

There was the usual toffee-like coffee flavour, but also a really dark earthy depth like an intense shot of espresso, which is unusual in coffee snacks that tend to lean closer to the instant coffee toffee-like taste. This one had some overlaps with dark espresso, like classic tiramisu cakes.

The downside is that the fried dough taste played second fiddle and was quite indistinct. So it seemed like a hard coffee breadstick. 
Coffee Karinto by Azemichi Group - ingredients list
The ingredients list states "coffee" instead of "coffee powder", and I wonder if they brewed the coffee first before adding it into the dough, resulting in a richer and more open taste.

This was probably the most addictive flavour to me, due to the depth and intensity of the coffee flavour.

Kabocha Pumpkin Karinto
Kabocha Pumpkin Karinto by Azemichi Group
This flavour specifically refers to the Japanese pumpkin or kabocha. This was another very subtle flavour, perhaps even subtler than the sweet potato one. This is probably also because pumpkin already overlaps in flavour somewhat with wheat and eggs.

It was mainly like base of plain fried dough, with a very faint butter and vegetal notes at the edges and top notes. Like the buttery nutty flesh of the pumpkin in the base and body notes with the vegetal green skin's fragrance in the top notes, but very very faint.
Kabocha Pumpkin Karinto by Azemichi Group - ingredients list
According to the ingredients list, they also used honey for this (in addition to the sugar), but I couldn't identify it at all from the rest of the flavours.

It is actually much yellower than a normal fried dough shade, of a medium intensity, but without other items in the picture, the strength of the colour may not be obvious.

This was my least liked flavour.

Spiced Burdock (Gobo) Karinto (Garashi Karinto)
Spiced Gobo Burdock Karinto by Azemichi Group
This was a tan colour with a faint reddish hue.

This flavour actually had the most crowded ingredients list, with shoyu as well in addition to the garashi spices.

I would rank this as the second-most obvious or intense in taste, but it is my favourite overall flavour.

When I bit into it, the dark, herby and earthy ginseng notes were very obvious. I think the grain and sulphuric egg notes of the fried dough also complemented the burdock's earthiness well. I think the shoyu's darkness, caramel notes and umami might have enhanced the burdock's depth, because it did feel very rich and complex, and I could not distinguish the shoyu taste separately.

Strangely, I did not notice a distinct spiced flavour. Garashi can refer to either capsicum pepper or shichimi, which is a traditional Japanese seven-spice blend that is supposed to have citrust elements, numbing spice elements and also pepper fragrance that is especially herbal and citrusy. Perhaps it was very faint because it was second-from-last on the ingredients list, after shoyu and right before yeast. So perhaps it mainly served to cause the gobo flavour to pop like I experienced it, similar to how the shoyu supported the gobo taste.
Spiced Gobo Burdock Karinto by Azemichi Group - ingredients list
It wasn't as overpowering as the coffee, but very distinct and natural, giving the impression that you're eating something very healthy with the association of herbs and vegetables (although it is probably objectively unhealthy). 

Verdict

Overall, this last spiced gobo or burdock flavour is such a gem because it is rich and complex, yet not too heavy, and it is a flavour combination that you hardly find outside Japan or get in dry snacks such as these. If you had to pick 1 flavour to check out the brand, I would highly recommend this one.

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