How to Make Mizu Yokan From Scratch

Red Beans and Sugar?!

What is Mizu Yokan?

It’s a gelatinous red bean candy. But that’s an oversimplification, and an unappetizing one at that.

Japanese cuisine offers us a traditional class of confectionery known as wagashi. Wagashi are generally small bites, intended to be enjoyed with green tea. They are usually plant-based, incorporating fruit, but also often (and perhaps surprisingly) vegetables.

One of the most popular ingredients in wagashi is the adzuki bean. This small red bean is cooked with sugar to yield what is commonly referred to as anko, a sweetened red bean paste. Anko exists in many forms, generally characterized by it’s level of consistency.

Here are the 3 main types:

Tsubuan — Relatively unrefined.

Tsubushian — Tsubuan is coarsely mashed. Whole beans are still visible.

Koshian —Tsubushian is passed through a sieve, removing much of the skin and yielding a fine paste.

The Mizu Yokan Process

In order to make Mizu Yokan, you pass through each one of these three stages.

If you are interested in following along, I put together a whole series of recipes with step by step videos to guide you.

First you make the tsubuan.

Then mash the tsubuan to make tsubushian.

Pass it through a sieve to yield koshian.

And finally, set it in agar agar and slice it. Now you have Mizu Yokan.

It’s a simple process and the result is a distinctly Japanese sweet in both texture and flavor that brilliantly compliments the bitterness of green tea. Wagashi itself is a complex and fascinating craft, to which Mizu Yokan makes for a great introduction.