What Is Bontan Ame? Japan's 100-Year-Old Chewy Citrus Candy

The first time our team opened a box of Bontan Ame (ボンタンアメ), we tried to peel the clear wrapper off each candy. It wouldn't come off. That's because it isn't a wrapper at all: it's an edible film, and you're meant to eat it.

Bontan Ame is a soft, chewy citrus candy made by Seika Foods (セイカ食品) in Kagoshima, at the southern end of Japan's Kyushu island. It has been made since 1924, which makes it over 100 years old.

What Is Bontan Ame?

Bontan Ame is a bite-size candy made with glutinous rice, the same sticky rice used for mochi. That gives it a soft, chewy texture rather than the hardness of a boiled sweet. Seika Foods describes it as so unlike anything else on the Japanese market that it treats it as a category of its own.

Each piece gets its flavour from real citrus: bontan juice and concentrated satsuma mandarin juice. Seika says it uses bontan oil from Akune, in Kagoshima, along with juice from southern Kyushu.

Don't Peel It: The Film Is Edible

The clear layer around each candy looks like plastic, and it's often described as rice paper, but it's neither. It's オブラート (oburāto, or oblaat), a thin film made from starch. Seika says Bontan Ame's film is made from potato and sweet potato starch.

The box says it plainly: 「そのままお召しあがりください」, "please eat it as it is." The film melts in your mouth as you chew. The white powder you might see on the surface is starch too.

Shop Bontan Ame

Why Is It So Chewy?

It comes down to the rice. Seika explains that the glutinous rice is cleaned, polished and milled at its own factory, soaked overnight in cold water, then steamed for two and a half hours. The result is a candy that's soft, sticky and chewy, closer to mochi than to a hard candy.

The Fruit in the Name: Bontan

文旦 (bontan, also read buntan) is a large citrus in the pomelo family. In Kagoshima it's usually called ボンタン, and that's where the candy gets its name: ボンタン (bontan) + アメ (ame, candy) = bontan candy.

The back of the box describes it as bontan "ripened by the sun under the clear southern sky", and calls it the largest of the fragrant citrus fruits.

How Bontan Ame Started

Seika Foods says the idea came from its founder watching factory workers playfully cutting soft rice candy into small pieces with scissors. He added flavour and colour, then packaged it in a box like a caramel, aiming to take on Morinaga's famous Milk Caramel.

The company's roots go back to 1903, when it began as a confectionery wholesaler in Kagoshima. It became Kagoshima Kashi (Confectionery) Co. in 1919, started producing Bontan Ame in 1924, and took the name Seika Foods in 1959. Its sister candy, Hyoroku Mochi, followed in 1931.

Made in Kagoshima

Kagoshima sits at the southern tip of Kyushu, facing the active Sakurajima volcano across Kinkō Bay. Seika Foods is based in Kagoshima City, and over 100 years after it was first made, Bontan Ame is still a Kagoshima candy.

What Does "Oblaat" Mean?

オブラート (oburāto) is a loanword from Dutch oblaat (German Oblate), a thin edible wafer. In Europe it was first used to wrap powdered medicine so it was easier to swallow, and Japanese dictionaries say it went on sale in Japan in the early Taishō era, in the 1910s. When Bontan Ame arrived in 1924, it was still a fairly new idea.

Where to Buy Bontan Ame

Bontan Ame is available at Oyatsu Mart in a pack of ten 60g boxes, shipped from Japan. Looking for more? Browse our full range of Japanese snacks.

Shop Bontan Ame

Product Details

Ingredients: Starch syrup (made in Japan), sugar, maltose, glutinous rice, oblaat (edible starch film), bontan juice, concentrated satsuma mandarin juice, starch, flavouring, annatto colouring, emulsifier (from soy)

Allergens: Contains soy. Made on equipment shared with products containing milk.

Storage: Room temperature, away from direct sunlight, heat and humidity.

Please note: As with most chewy candies, it may loosen dental fillings or crowns.

Details from Seika Foods' official product page, company history and packaging.