”Sho-ro” means white mushroom which appear around pine tree forests in April and May. In Kyoto, the name “sho-ro” is famous as the traditional sweets made by Nijo-Surugaya near Nijo castle.

Its shape is like small round mushrooms, but they are made from sugar and beans.

 




 

Special mushroom “Sho-ro”

 

Shoro is the round bean paste coated with white sugar. Although we can buy “sho-ro” for the casual sweet shops of sometimes in the supermarket for our daily life, they are usually made of a little bit hard beans while the special Sho-ro made by Nijo-surugaya is made of very soft and delicious sweet beans grown in Tanba area (Hyogo prefecture and Kyoto). I was surprised to find the smooth taste of beans inside.

 




 

Cool sweet bean jelly in the fresh green bamboo.

 

Nijo-Surugaya is famous for the bean jelly in the container made of fresh green bamboo as well as Sho-ro.

Maybe you can find many sweet bean jelly in the plastic bamboo everywhere in Kyoto’s souvenir shops, but their bean jelly is in the real bamboo.

The sample in the show case seems a little dark green, but actually, it’s more fresh green.” The owner of the shop said.

I think the real bamboo looks more like “Japanese”.

We often have them cooler in the fridge and eat in hot and humid summer.

 

 

 

The authentic sweets in Kyoto

 

I’ve heard they brought about 100 Sho-ro for the big tea ceremony held by Omote-Senke, one of the biggest tea school in Japan this morning.

I wonder what kind of tea utensils will be used and what material was used for the sweets’ plate.

Sho-ro is simple and still pretty like round mushrooms, but the owner always chooses some seasonal dried sweets to put with. It was a green maple leaf today.

It looks more delicious and beautiful with colorful sweets.

 

 Nijo-Surugaya

241-1 Daionji-cho Shinmachi Higashiiru Nijo-dori Nakagyo-ku Kyoto

TEL： 075-231-4633

Business hour ： 9:00～19:00

Regular holiday ： Sundays & national holidays