Review: 3 Uncle Japanese Style Mochi

Review: 3 Uncle Japanese Style Mochi

If you're not familiar with mochi you're missing out. The japanese style glutinous rice cakes have an unusual texture and come in a whole range of flavours. The term mochi covers a wide range of glutinous rice cakes, and the sweet-filled ones such as these are 'daifuku' mochi. In the US you can find mochi ice cream balls, even vegan ones, but sadly not in the UK. What we can get here are brands such as 3 Uncle (from Taiwan) who produce several vegan types of mochi.


3 Uncle Japanese Style Vegan Mochi
Left: Red Bean Mochi, Right: Peanut Mochi
We picked up two flavours of the 3 Uncle mochi, the traditional red bean and the more unusual peanut. Mochi such as these are somewhere between cakes and sweet dumplings. The outside made of glutinous rice flour is quite springy, like a dense marshmallow with a mild sweet flavour. The fillings are sweet but not overly so. Freshly made mochi are lighter and puffier than packaged mochi.

3 Uncle Japanese Style Vegan Mochi red bean and peanut

You'd be forgiven for being a little disappointed that the contents within, don't match the picture on the 3 Uncle box, but the mochi are reasonably good. The red bean mochi have a very mild, sweet taste, while the filling in the peanut ones is very much like peanut butter. We preferred the peanut mochi because of their distinct nutty taste.

toasted vegan mochi

Sweet mochi are usually eaten at room temperature, but like all mochi they can be toasted. Stick them under a hot grill (broiler) until they puff up and the outside turns crispy. The inside will turn all gooey and stretchy...and really delicious. Toasted mochi are rather like toasted marshmallows. If you can only get packaged mochi you may find this is the best way to eat them..especially to a western palate. A word of warning though...mochi are very calorific...

Look at that picture though...hot gooey marshmallow with peanut butter filling...how can you resist finishing the box!

Verdict: Gooey Goodness


Veganoo Score: ★★★★☆
3 Uncle Japanese Style Mochi (Red Bean / Peanut)



Footnote: Ingredients
Here are the ingredients panels from the packs we reviewed.

Note: E473 (Sugar esters of fatty acids) present in the peanut mochi is normally produced from plant oils, but we haven't verified this.




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9 comments:

  1. Where did you buy these? They look amazing!

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  2. We got ours from a Turkish supermarket, but most Chinese supermarkets sell mochi, at least in the UK

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  3. Theres a chinese supermarket in china town in london that sells the vegan mochi icecream :)

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  4. Yeah it was called the New Loon Moon supermarket, on Gerrard street. you have to go right to the back into a basement type area where it has some wall mounted freezers, it's in there. lots of flavours and a box of mixed if i remember rightly. I couldnt bring any back as i couldnt keep it frozen :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the tip. Anyone want to check it out and guest review it?

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    2. I found some in Birmingham and picked up a box if you still want someone to review :)

      Delete
    3. I'll get on it then :)

      Delete

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