Mizuame

Mizuame

Type	Sweetener
Place of origin	Japan
Main ingredients	Glutinous rice and malt or potatoes
Media: Mizuame

Mizuame (水飴, literally "water candy", also known as millet jelly) is a sweetener from Japan. A clear, thick, sticky liquid, it is made by converting starch to sugars. Mizuame is added to wagashi to give them a sheen, eaten in ways similar to honey, and can be a main ingredient in sweets. Some mizuame are produced in a very similar fashion to corn syrup and are very similar in taste.

Two methods are used to convert the starches to sugars. The traditional method is to take glutinous rice mixed with malt, and let the natural enzymatic process take place, converting the starch to syrup^[1] which consists mainly of maltose.^[2] The second and more common method is acid hydrolysis of potato starch or sweet potato starch by adding acid, such as hydrochloric, sulfuric or nitric acids,^[1] to make glucose syrup.^[3] If done by the first method, the final product, known as malt mizuame (麦芽水飴), is considered more flavorful than the acid version.^[1]

Starch syrup can be eaten as is. In Japan, it was an essential part of kamishibai, popular until around the 1960s, and children would stir the syrup with disposable chopsticks and eat it while playing.

It is also used as a cooking ingredient. Before sugar was introduced, it served as a main sweetener in Japan and is still used today in traditional Japanese sweets. Some confections feature starch syrup as one of the key ingredients, such as nanbu senbei, a rice cracker snack where the syrup is sandwiched between two pieces of rice cracker, and rakugan, a dry, molded sweet.

Though starch syrup is not classified as a food additive, it’s often used like one due to its unique properties: it inhibits sugar crystallization, helping maintain a smooth texture in sugary foods, retains moisture, and adds a glossy finish to Japanese sweets and dishes like teriyaki. There is also a product called reduced starch syrup, which is a sweetener whose main ingredient is sugar alcohols processed from starch syrup.

Malt syrup, made primarily from glutinous rice and processed using saccharifying enzymes found in malt juice, is dried and powdered to produce kouai, a substance used in certain Chinese herbal medicines.^[4] Its main component is maltose, though the manufacturing process clearly indicates that other compounds are also present.

Herbal medicines that include glue candy as a key ingredient include Shokenchuto and Daikenchuto, in which glue candy accounts for roughly half the total weight of the medicinal formula. Other examples include preparations like Huangqi Jianzhongto.

While glue candy is not typically used on its own in traditional Chinese medicine, it is believed to have nourishing and strengthening properties, particularly for the stomach. One theory suggests that these benefits may stem from maltose’s influence on the intestinal flora.^[5]

• Barley malt syrup
• Corn syrup
• List of syrups

• Media related to Mizuame at Wikimedia Commons