This time I'm not featuring some cool new product, but want to ask your opinion about a very old one.
If you've never been to Japan, chances are you've never tried most of the sweets and candies unique to Japan. There are so many of them, but for this post I want to look at one - youkan (pronounced Yoh!-kan).
Like so many things unique to Japan, it's hard to translate it in a way that means anything to westerners. Youkan is translated as "sweet bean jelly" but it's actually more the consistency of cake. It's quite heavy, sweet and rich, but pretty healthy. It can be flavored with different things, usually fruit, nuts, chestnut, something like that.
 | So I was asked the other day, out of the blue, if I'd be interested in promoting the youkan made by a particular company in neighboring Gifu prefecture on the Japan Zone store. This particular company makes its youkan (and a few other similar products) flavored with kaki, or persimmon and has been a family-run business for 253 years!! They sell the youkan in a length of bamboo, which is a very cool and unique packaging idea. The prices vary depending on the size/quantity but are around the range of $12-$60. |
I probably will add their fairly small product line to the store, when I get a chance. They say they'll ship overseas, so I'd just be processing the orders for them as they don't have any English-speaking staff. They say they already ship to some regular customers around the world (mostly hotels and the like) but want to expand to the retail market.
So what do you think? Would you order a somewhat exotic food item like this online?
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