SAITAMA/IBARAKI, Sept. 10 — How about “drinking” yakiimo baked sweet potatoes? Some restaurants and breweries have started offering the popular winter delicacy as drinks and liquors.
Minamimachi Coffee, a café in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture, a major sweet potato producing region, offers Yakiimo Latte, made by baking Japan-grown sticky-type sweet potatoes and mixing them with milk. Sweet potatoes grown in Kawagoe are also used between November and March.
The 600-yen drink is proving popular among tourists visiting the city famous for the traditional warehouse-lined streets.
Kotaro Bussan, a café and farm produce shop in Hokota, Ibaraki Prefecture, is a pioneer of sweet potato drinks, selling Nomu Yakiimo (“baked sweet potato that you can drink”) — a drink made with home-baked Hokota-grown sweet potato variety Beniharuka and milk — since 2015.
Meirishurui Co., a brewing company in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, has been selling You Yakiimo (“baked sweet potato that makes you drunk”), a liquor containing sweet potatoes, since 2020.
The firm roasts Ibaraki-grown variety Silk Sweet and makes it into a paste to be used as an ingredient.
“We see social media posts saying people are drinking it by mixing it with soda or using it as an ingredient to make sweets,” said a Meirishurui official.
Yakiimo Latte sold at Minamimachi Coffee in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture