Trappist Cookies

Fermented butter cookies made with traditional monastic methods

“Trappist cookies” made at the “Trappist Monastery” in Hokuto City, located in western Hokkaido, are a classic Hakodate souvenir. It is a very unique product, a cookie made in a monastery, but it is nice to know that it is also available at ordinary souvenir shops.

The yellow packaging is cute, with a design that looks like a picture of an echoing bell.

The individual packages contain three cookies.

These cookies are made with a generous amount of Trappist butter, a fermented butter produced in the traditional way of the Cistercian monasteries in France since the Middle Ages. The texture is like a cookie, and each piece is thin and light. It seems to have a freshness and richness not found in ordinary butter.

I thought these cookies were full of originality, perfect as a souvenir of a trip to Hakodate, where they have been popular for more than 80 years since they were first sold in 1936.