With a unique flavor different from ordinary sugar, wasanbon toh has remained a special sugar for making Japanese sweets. Its usage, however, is not limited to Japanese sweets.

■ For Japanese sweets
■ For western sweets
■ For sushi and soba(buckwheat noodle) restaurants
■ For coffee shops as a sweetener for coffee and tea
■ For cooking at home

As special sugar for Japanese sweets, most wasanbon toh is delivered to reputable Japanese sweet shops. Over the years this situation has basically remained unchanged. Even nowadays it is in great demand at Japanese sweets.

Wasanbon toh is especially indispensable for a dry sweet called "Rakugan". All the well-known "Rakugan" contain wasanbon toh.

"Rakugan" is made by mixing wasanbon toh with a thickening flour. Different proportion of wasanbon toh and flour make different "Rakugan".

Besides dry sweets, wasanbon toh is used in "Yokan(red bean jelly)", "Mizu-yokan(soft redbean jelly)", as well as candies.

Although wasanbon toh is mostly used in Japanese sweets, recently it is very often being used in western sweets. It may simply replace ordinary sugar and is used in sponge cake or as coating sugar.

In the case of baked sweets, too, the syrup of wasanbon toh yields good results. Wasanbon toh is mainly delivered to the dessert section of expensive French restaurants and to refined western sweets shops.

Another recent popular use of wasanbon toh is in sushi and soba. At sushi and soba restaurants where people tend to be particular about their food, wasanbon toh is quite often used.

The use of wasanbon toh for sushi differs from restaurant to restaurant. Although it is most often used in egg for sushi, it is also used in other dishes. Though wasanbon toh's brownish color does appear only slightly, some restaurants use it in sushi rice.

At soba restaurants, wasanbon toh is mainly used as a dipping sauce.

Until about fifteen years ago, wasanbon toh was considered a special sugar for use in Japanese sweets. It, therefore, was not widely used. The primary use of wasanbon toh other than for Japanese sweets is as a sweetener for coffee and tea.

Although people might think that the unique flavor of wasanbon toh fights with the taste of coffee, it in fact goes very well with it.

Another common use for wasanbon toh is in cooking at home. Wasanbon toh, which had not been as commonly used because of its costliness, can nowadays be found at the special food sections of department stores.

Many people now order wasanbon toh by phone or by home delivery services. In cooking it is used in exactly the same way as ordinary sugar.

If you come across "Awa wasanbon toh," I would recommend you first try a small amount.