These Taiko Nashi Glacé are an interesting find. Prior to spotting them in the Don Quixote, it’d never crossed my mind that candied nashi even existed.

The packaging describes the nashi used as having ‘been grown as it bathed in warm sunlight’ and delivering ‘a great taste that stays close to your heart’. The pieces of nashi are candied in rum syrup.

The nashi glacé has a sweet aroma with a hint of rum – but not boozy as in rum-flavoured chocolates – in the background. Upon tasting, a gentle sweetness from the sugary surface came through before the fresh and bright flavours of the nashi pear emerged in the body, developing with a more pronounced sweetness and a slight acidity into the finish and leaving a sugary aftertaste. The texture of the nashi glacé is surprising enjoyable – there’s a resistance in the bite that recalled a firm version of the crunchy juicy qualities of the fresh fruit. Together with the evident flavours of the fresh fruit, the texture elevates these pieces of glace to more than mere lumps of sugar.

This Taiko Nashi Glacé contained 180 g. It was produced in Japan and purchased in Ōsaka, Japan in 2018.