is a Japanese

dessert Dessert is a course (food), course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Greece and West Africa, and ...

. It is made of small cubes of

agar Agar ( or ), or agar-agar, is a jelly-like substance consisting of polysaccharides obtained from the cell walls of some species of red algae, primarily from ogonori (''Gracilaria'') and "tengusa" (''Gelidiaceae''). As found in nature, agar is ...

jelly, a white translucent jelly made from

red alga Red algae, or Rhodophyta (, ; ), are one of the oldest groups of eukaryotic algae. The Rhodophyta also comprises one of the largest phyla of algae, containing over 7,000 currently recognized species with taxonomic revisions ongoing. The majority ...

e or

seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of '' Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ...

. The agar is dissolved with water (or

fruit juice Juice is a drink made from the extraction or pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat or seafood, such as ...

such as

apple juice Apple juice is a fruit juice made by the maceration and pressing of an apple. The resulting expelled juice may be further treated by enzymatic and centrifugal clarification to remove the starch and pectin, which holds fine particulate in suspe ...

) to make the jelly. It is served in a bowl with boiled red field peas (or sometimes

azuki bean ''Vigna angularis'', also known as the adzuki bean , azuki bean, aduki bean, red bean, or red mung bean, is an annual vine widely cultivated throughout East Asia for its small (approximately long) bean. The cultivars most familiar in East Asia ...

s), often ''

gyūhi is a form of wagashi (traditional Japanese sweet). Gyūhi is a softer variety of mochi (餅), and both are made from either glutinous rice or from . Because gyūhi is more delicate, it is usually less frequently made and served than mochi. It i ...

'', '' Shiratama dango'' and a variety of fruits such as

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fu ...

slices, ''

mikan ''Citrus unshiu'' is a semi-seedless and easy-peeling citrus species, also known as miyagawa mandarin, unshu mikan, cold hardy mandarin, satsuma mandarin, satsuma orange, naartjie, and tangerine. ''Citrus unshiu'' was named after Unshu (Wenzho ...

'', pieces of

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuri ...

s, and

cherries A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...

. The mitsumame usually comes with a small pot of sweet black syrup, or ''kuromitsu'' which one pours onto the jelly before eating. Mitsumame is usually eaten with a spoon and fork.

Variations

A few variations on this dessert exist.

Anmitsu Anmitsu (, rarely ) is a Japanese dessert that dates to the Meiji era. It is made of small cubes of agar jelly, a white translucent jelly made from red algae. The agar is dissolved with water (or fruit juice such as apple juice) to make the jell ...

is mitsumame with bean paste, the ''an'' meaning the sweet

paste or '' anko''. Mamekan is mitsumame without fruits. Cream mitsumame is mitsumame with

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as str ...

on top. Fruits mitsumame is mitsumame with fruits. Coffee mitsumame is mitsumame with

coffee jelly is a jelly dessert flavored with coffee and sugar. Although once common in British and American cookbooks, it is now most common in Japan, where it can be found in most restaurants and convenience stores. Coffee jelly can be made using inst ...

. File:Mitsumame by S e i in Asakusa, Tokyo.jpg File:Shiratama mitsumame by Strolling everyday ....jpg

History

The prototype of mitsumame is a dessert for children sold to the end of the

Edo era The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteri ...

. The present type was born in 1903. Anmitsu was born in 1930.

References

{{Commons category Japanese desserts and sweets