Beni-Haruka Sweet Potato Canele by Okano Shokuhin Sangyo, Himeji, Hyogo at Family Mart

Continuing on with sweet potato season in Japan, Family Mart launched a Beni-Haruka Sweet Potato Canelé made by Okano Shokuhin Sangyo in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture. I thought that a canelé was a relatively new snack in Japan for such interesting flavours, so I wanted to try. 
Beni-Haruka Sweet Potato Canele at Family Mart
It turned out to be a great buy. 

There was a clear and nice dark caramelised roasted sweet potato taste over the characteristic yellow sweet potato's honey floral, nutty, creamy and earthy notes. 

It wasn't quite exactly like a typical canelé though, because the texture was more cakey as you can see from the photo below, rather than the typical smooth, mochi-like custard. It was somewhat between a dense old fashioned donut a mochi-based bread like pão de queijo (Brazilian mochi cheese bread) or pon de ring donut. 
Beni-Haruka Sweet Potato Canele at Family Mart - inside texture
It was not too sweet, which was good. 

The caramel sauce is actually the milky looking icing in the first picture, and it seems to have seeped into the main canelé and blended in like a brown sugar sauce in taste. 

Finally, here is the packaging wrapper and ingredients list (click to enlarge to view text clearly). What I found interesting is that there was milk. The sugar, milk and sweet potato (satsuma-imo) paste actually came before the flour, with sugar right at the start, so it was interesting why it didn't seem sweet even though I normally have a low threshold for sweetness. Also interesting was the use of coconut oil! There were also 2 types of caramel sauces spelt slightly differently and finally cream. Pretty pure ingredients overall.
Beni-Haruka Sweet Potato Canele at Family Mart - packaging wrapper
Beni-Haruka Sweet Potato Canele at Family Mart - ingredients list
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