Kousen Senbei

Linger on the simple and rustic sweetness, delicious.

“Kousen Senbei” made by Takeya Senbei Honpo in Ogaki City, Gifu Prefecture, is a simple rice cracker made from kneaded flour and sugar with Kousen water.  Kousen water means spring water from underground.  From medical standpoint, that is called as Kousen water because it contains healing elements.

Each package contains many thin rice crackers by stacking each of them.

The main ingredient is flour, which gives them a crispy texture, thin finished; it is about 1.5 mm thick and so light that you can hardly feel its weight.

A letter “Carls” is written on the surface, which also derives from mineral springs.  It is named “Carls” after the radium-rich springs of the world-famous Carlsbad, the largest spa resort in the Czech Republic.

Such sort of Kousen senbei has been made in various hot spring resorts across Japan and  is generally called simply “Onsen senbei” or “Soda senbei” or “Kousen senbei”.  Anyway, the simple and rustic taste never got me tired of it.