Ryugetsu is a small Hokkaido confectionary company that is well known among Japanese visitors to Hokkaido. I’m not sure if people from abroad know of this company, so I wanted to highlight it in a blog post. Ryugetsu’s not as famous as Shiroi Koibito and Royce, but their products are just as delicious. Again, it’s one of the best things about living in Hokkaido: the endless array of delicious sweets.

In today’s post, I wanted to focus on Ryugetsu’s two sweets that were hard to get before the pandemic: Anbatasan and BasuQ. Since I work around Sapporo Station, I saw how popular these products were among Japanese tourists. They were always lined up to buy boxes of these goods. As a result, us locals were hardly able to get our hands on these sweets. Since I was curious about why they were so popular, I wanted to try them out, too. However, every time I went to the shops, they were always sold out.

When the tourists stopped coming to Hokkaido, I was finally able to get my hands on them.

I’m so glad I did:

Anbatasan

Anbatasan is a cookie sandwich (サン san) with azuki bean and butter (あんバターanbata) filling. The cookie itself is delicious and the filling is more butter than sweet azuki bean paste, anko. I am not a fan of anko because I hate beans, so I was reluctant to try this at first. But it was surprisingly good.

The cookie sandwich is sweet but not very overwhelming. The texture of the filling is a little bit grainy because of the beans, but it didn’t take away from the experience. The creaminess of the butter was balanced out by sweetness of the anko. It also had a little bit of a roasted flavor.

I highly recommend them as souvenirs. The box I got was ¥600 for four cookies.

Tokatic BasuQ

I don’t know where to begin. I loved this product but it might be difficult to get and give away to people as a souvenir. Why? Because it’s a cheesecake. And one of the best cheesecakes I’ve ever eaten.

But it’s not just a cheesecake. It’s cheesecake and custard in one.

Yes, I know. It sounds really weird but it’s actually really really good. It should be for the amount we paid for it. It was ¥1500 for a cake that is 12cm in diameter and 4cm high. Trust me when I say it’s small.

But the taste is amazing. The cheesecake itself is baked in the Basque-style, which is the area between France and Spain. It’s not as dry as you would normally get, but more moist, like a souffle. In the middle of this rich cheese cake, there is a layer of creamy custard. And then, if that’s not enough, the cake is topped by caramel sauce. Whoever invented this piece of culinary heaven needs to be sainted.

I’ve linked to Ryugetsu’s Japanese website so you can see what other products they have. At this point, I think we’re all going to have to rely on buying things online. I might order another cheesecake and try out their other stuff. If I do, I will do another product review.

Again, it’s all for the sake of research 🙂