Three amazing Japanese convenience store sweet potato desserts to eat right now (and 11 for later)

A roadmap for starting your journey of eating your way through Family Mart’s sweet potato sweets lineup .

Though they usually have a little fruit and vegetable corner where you can pick up some bananas, a carrot, or half a head of lettuce, Japanese convenience stores aren’t really the best place to go if you’re looking for fresh seasonal produce.

Japanese convenience stores are, on the other hand, exactly where you want to be if you’re looking for new seasonal sweets .

Sweet potato sweets season is here, and September 22 is essentially harvest day as Family Mart releases no fewer than 14 desserts that feature the flavor, and sometimes even the look, of sweet spuds.

We realize that even the biggest sweets fans might have trouble fitting that many items into their snacking schedule, so our taste-testing reporter Natsuki Goto has sampled them all and prepared her personal list of the three she recommends eating first, then working your way to the rest if you have the time/stomach capacity.

3.

Mocchi Oimo Bread (Beni Haruka) (185 yen [US$1.15]) This pillowy soft pastry visually mimics a roasted sweet potato that’s been sliced open, with an eye-catching contrast of colors to go with its hybrid design.

While the outside has the texture of a soft bread bun, the inner section is a moist sponge cake, thanks to the use of sweet bean paste flavored with Beni Haruka, one of Japan’s sweetest varieties of sweet potato .

The sprinkling of black sesame seeds , a common addition to roasted sweet potatoes in Japan, adds a touch of mature sophistication, and the overall flavor is excellent.

Family Mart brings out some sort of sweet potato bread pretty much every autumn, but this is one of their best yet, and anyone who likes sweet potatoes will find a lot to love here.

Before we move on to Natsuki’s number-two pick, let’s take a look at some of the also-rans in the lineup.

Honestly, there wasn’t a bad-tasting treat in the bunch, so you can think of these as “not as amazing as the top three” rather than not being recommended. ▼ Caramel-scent Sweet Potato Croissant (185 yen) ▼ Satsuma Imo Sweet Potato Stick (180 yen per bag) ▼ Sweet Potato Dorayaki (216 yen) ▼ Sweet Potato Zakuhoro Cream Puff (254 yen) ▼ Sweet Potato Canelé with Caramel Sauce (285 yen) ▼ Beni Haruka Sweet Potato Terrine (298 yen) OK, let’s get back to Natsuki’s top picks with… 2.

Sweet Potato Florentine (195 yen) Japan has a pretty broad palate in terms of desserts with overseas origins, but you don’t often see Florentines at convenience stores.

For those unfamiliar with the term, Florentines are a kind of French biscuit-type cookie, coated with caramel and topped with nuts.