A must-see for sweet tooths! The "Anko Expo," an event where you can taste various flavors of anko, will be held at Marui Imai Sapporo Main Store until Monday, October 7th. The world of anko is deeply connected to Hokkaido, with Hokkaido accounting for about 90% of the production of azuki beans, the raw material for anko. Be sure to come to the event and find your favorite anko sweets.

The "Anko Expo" is a popular event where a wide variety of anko sweets are gathered in one place. Although they are all called anko sweets, they are all rich in individuality, ranging from snacks that are popular to those that embody traditional beauty and those that pursue new possibilities. We will introduce some interesting stores and anko sweets.

■ Gokatteya Roll 378 yen / Gokatteya Honpo (Esashi Town)

Limit 3 per person

We will demonstrate the Gokatteya Roll, which has many enthusiastic fans and is made with fluffy dough and Gokatteya Honpo's special Hokkaido red bean paste filling.

■Bean Kinton 150g, 648 yen / Tsujiya Confectionery (Akita Prefecture)

The traditional "Mamekinton" is made only once a year for our customers at the end of the year. This must-have dish for New Year's Eve has been loved by our customers in the area and is available specially for the Anko Expo. Please enjoy the rich flavor of Hokkaido Daifuku beans and the smooth texture of the white bean paste.

■ Pan Dora (pistachio bean paste, fig bean paste, bean paste) 1 piece each 432 yen / BABBI (Italy)

The dough is baked using BABBI pancake mix from Italy, and is filled with a filling made from BABBI's popular pistachio paste and fig sauce.

■ Anko stand 30g x 2, 540 yen / Takumi Ankodo (Aomori Prefecture)

You can choose two types of "anko" from the 12 types available only at this event, place them on the dorayaki skin, and enjoy comparing the taste.

■ Fondant Mizuyokan - Dark Brown - 324 yen / Kashiwaya Tsuchiya (Gifu Prefecture)

This is a dessert-type mizu yokan, with matcha latte sauce inside a soft mizu yokan.

■Arashiyama Mont Blanc 1,296 yen / Kinnohana Saga Arashiyama store (Kyoto Prefecture)

This is Kyoto Kinnohana's most popular Mont Blanc, filled with plenty of chestnuts and smothered in roasted chestnut paste.

■ Brown sugar Sekinoto apple pie 324 yen / Fukagawaya Mutsu Daijo (Mie Prefecture)

Limited to 100 per day

Apple pie filled with brown sugar seki no to and baked dried apples with red bean paste.

■ Red bean paste soft serve ice cream 550 yen / Ginza Kuya Sorairo (Tokyo)

Limited to 200 bottles per day

The monaka wafer is topped with anko soft serve ice cream made from red bean paste made with Tokachi-grown azuki beans and raw milk from Tokachi.

■DORACATS 5 pieces, 2,160 yen / Kita Family Rokuninshu (Tokyo)

Limited to 20 boxes per day

The Kita Family's Six Artisans are the most skilled of the Kita Family. The Kita Family makes a Western-style dorayaki that combines crunchy apples with white bean paste and cinnamon. The chewy dough and apple paste are a perfect match. It comes in a limited edition package created in collaboration with photographer Masayuki Oki.

■Ankomushi bread 432 yen / Ankomushi bread (butter) 476 yen / Ankodo (Sapporo City)

A variety of red bean paste fillings are sandwiched between fluffy steamed bread.

■Hokkaido Ancolon Collection from 381 yen / Boulangerie Colon (Sapporo)

A total of six types of bread will be available exclusively at the venue, including "Hokkaido An Butter," a popular bread made from 100% Hokkaido wheat, with bean paste and various flavored butters, and "Coffee An & Fluffy Fresh Cream," a limited edition bread with a shelf life of just 20 minutes that combines coffee bean paste with fresh cream.

■ Anko parfait 701 yen / QINA & Co. x Moiwayama Dango (Tokyo x Sapporo)

This parfait, created by the kinako and bean paste sweets brand QINA & Co. and the popular dumpling shop Moiwayama Dango, allows you to enjoy a traditional Japanese taste.

■AN Cream Trio 3 pieces, 1,501 yen / Anko no Kachi (Osaka Prefecture)

There are three types of bean paste available: whole bean paste, smooth bean paste, and peeled bean paste, each with a different sugar content.

■Dora Ball Rum Raisin 540 yen / Hanakanzashi (Osaka Prefecture)

Limited to 20 per day

We put plenty of raisins soaked in rum into the white bean paste. The alcohol content is reduced by heat, so the alcohol content is zero. This is a popular item that is highly requested.

■ Tamamonaka 4 pieces, 1,296 yen / Kameya (Saitama Prefecture)

This is the second in the series of cute products following last year's hugely popular Tama Dora.

■ Cube Yokan au chocolat 4 pieces, 1,620 yen / Takumi Ankodo (Aomori Prefecture)

Instead of the typical stick-shaped yokan, we made them into cubes of about 3cm. We also developed a variety of flavors that go beyond the traditional Japanese image.

■ Anko butter french bread 886 yen / Ginza Kuya Sorairo (Tokyo)

Limited to 150 bottles per day

Approximately 30cm of soft French bread is filled from end to end with plenty of bean paste and butter.

■ Bean paste butter toast 301 yen / Shirokuma Bakery (Sapporo)

The popular eat-in menu item of Shirokuma Bakery Cafe on Nango-dori, Red Bean Butter Toast, will be available exclusively at the Red Bean Paste Expo. Enjoy the combination of butter and red bean paste.

■Mini Fruit Daifuku Set (3-5 pieces) 1,001 yen / Kakuozan Fruit Daifuku Benzaiten (Aichi Prefecture)

Limited to 20 sets per day

This is a limited edition product that allows you to try a little bit of each type of daifuku.

■Sekinoto Wasanbon (6 pieces, 648 yen) / Fukagawaya Mutsu Daijo (Mie Prefecture)

A rice cake confection made of sweet bean paste wrapped in gyuhi and sprinkled with wasanbon.

■ Mame Daifuku with salted bean paste (3 pieces) - 648 yen / Kameya (Saitama Prefecture)

This bean daifuku is made from carefully kneaded Hokkaido red beans, with a lightly sweet salted bean paste wrapped in soft, white "wataboushi" dough from Niigata.

■ Junmai dango (3 pieces) Mitarashi, red bean, and hishio, 778 yen each / Japanese chestnuts 998 yen / Kashima Kasho Marusanrosho (Ibaraki Prefecture)

The dough, made without using joshinko rice flour and instead made from steamed rice, has a firm texture and a subtle sweetness.

■ Sanbai Mochi (small) Red bean paste, white bean paste, sesame bean paste, 1 piece each, 1,242 yen / Tsujiya Confectionery (Akita Prefecture)

A traditional Akita snack, Ankomochi has the texture of mochi when you put it in your mouth, and the more you chew it, the more the flavor of the red bean paste spreads.

■Yamadaya Manju 10 pieces, 1,566 yen / Yamadaya Manju (Ehime Prefecture)

These bite-sized manju are filled with koshian (smooth bean paste) made from carefully kneaded Tokachi-grown azuki beans. The smooth, melt-in-your-mouth koshian (smooth bean paste) has just the right amount of sweetness and a pleasant aftertaste.

■ Gokatteya round canned yokan 378 yen / Gokatteya Honpo (Esashi Town)

This is the oldest existing "ito-shiki yokan" and is the red flag of Gokatteya. It goes well with tea, whiskey, and scotch.

■ Peanut Monaka 151 yen / Nagomi Rice Shop (Chiba Prefecture)

The filling is made with sweet stewed peanuts and stuffed into adorable peanut-shaped mochi shells.

■Heiji Monaka 141 yen / Heiji Senbei Main Store (Mie Prefecture)

This monaka is modeled after Heiji's forgotten hat, which appears in a tale handed down in ancient Tsu City.

■ Awamanju (10 pieces) - 1,301 yen / Koike Kashiho (Fukushima Prefecture)

Homemade bean paste is wrapped in millet and glutinous rice and steamed, resulting in a traditional homemade taste that can be enjoyed twice - fluffy when fresh and chewy when cooled.

■ Shibetsu Yokan Arare Cube 594 yen / Shibetsu Yokan Honpo (Nakashibetsu Town)

Shibetsu yokan is cut into small pieces and the surface is dried. The crunchy texture is followed by the rich flavor of yokan.

■Kiyome Mochi (5 pieces) 901 yen / Kiyome Mochi Souhonke (Aichi Prefecture)

This is a traditional confectionery made of carefully cooked smooth bean paste wrapped in soft habutae mochi.

■Kiku Monaka (3 pieces) 972 yen / Aoyagi Masaya (Tokyo)

This is a cute looking monaka, with the skin shaped like a chrysanthemum flower from the sixteen-petal chrysanthemum crest and stuffed with plenty of sweet red bean paste.

■Kumamoto Ikinari Dango 221 yen / Kumashun (Kumamoto Prefecture)

This is a local Kumamoto sweet made by placing bean paste on sweet potato, wrapping it in chewy dumpling skin, and steaming it.

Warabimochi 346 yen / Chestnut Kinton 346 yen / Tsukinoya (Mie Prefecture)

The warabimochi is made with real bracken powder and is filled with smooth bean paste in the store's kitchen. Tsukinoya serves up flavorful chestnut kinton made with fresh Rippei chestnuts from Kumamoto. Both are proudly made by craftsmen in the store.

■ Coelacanth eggs 521 yen / Maison Coelacanth (Miyagi Prefecture)

Tokachi-grown azuki beans are wrapped in pie crust and baked until fragrant. This cute, round egg-shaped pie has the flavors of butter, Guérande salt, and black sesame seeds that bring out the sweetness of the filling.

■THE PIE - Fresh bean paste pie - 381 yen / QINA & Co. x Moiwa Mountain Dango (Tokyo x Sapporo)

This popular brand, which opened in Nihonbashi, Tokyo in 2020, is now available in Sapporo for the first time. With their signature smooth bean paste and fresh cream, this is the most popular item in the THE PIE series.

■Hantei Butter Cheese Sandwich 5-item Assortment 1 box, 2,700 yen / RUNNY CHEESE (Fukui Prefecture)

A popular product made with Fukui's specialty "Hantei mochi", flavored bean paste, and high-quality butter cream.

■Cup pancake: 864 yen / Cafe Canon (Sapporo)

The popular cup pancakes from Kikusui Main Store have been arranged as an exclusive item for the Anko Expo.

■Fresh donuts: 540 yen / Marianna Confectionery (Sapporo)

Our extremely popular fresh donuts, which are only sold once a month at our Higashi Ward store, will be available in an exclusive red bean paste version at the Red Bean Pastry Expo.

■ Anko butter dorayaki 324 yen / Patisserie Laneige (Sapporo)

Limited to 100 per day

Dorayaki from a cake shop baked by the previous owner. Enjoy the marriage of butter cream made from Hokkaido butter and bean paste made from Tokachi azuki beans.

"Onuma Dango", a famous souvenir from Onuma in southern Hokkaido, will also be available.

The "Anko Expo" will be held from 10:30 to 19:30 from Wednesday, October 2nd to Monday, October 7th (closing at 18:00 on the final day) at the event space on the 9th floor of the Odori Building of Marui Imai Sapporo Main Store. Onuma Dango will be on sale at the venue from Thursday, October 3rd to Saturday, October 5th, and Akafuku will be on sale on Sunday, October 6th and Monday, October 7th. There will also be a lineup of anko sweets and yokan collections in collaboration with cafes and restaurants.

With such a wide selection, you'll have a hard time deciding which one to buy, so try and find your favorite item.

Check it out too!