Messy misconception about daifuku!

Daifuku is commonly confused with mochi. Some tourists or people who aren’t exactly familiar with the differences between the two get confused and get even more curious about the differences, considering the fact that visually, the two desserts both look similar to each other. This article will give you all some more knowledge about the desserts. Let’s get started! 

Mochi is a Japanese rice cake made from glutinous rice. It’s pounded into a sticky ball as well so that people are able to easily shape the rice cake. How do they pound it into a sticky ball you may ask? Well to answer your question, the glutinous rice will first  have to be ground and steamed before you will be able to have a sticky ball of chewy goodness! Although it is true that daifuku can be considered a type of mochi, they still have their main differences, such as the fact that mochi is not naturally sweet, it is like a tasteless chewy gummy unless a filling or a topping is added, and that is what makes daifuku and dango different from mochi. Daifuku mochi wrapping is made to be sweet and tasteful. To summarize, daifuku is a type of mochi but has its own taste to it, which it gets from the flavoring from the added ingredients that mochi doesn’t have. 

Most non-Japanese speakers usually call daifuku as mochi because specific Japanese names can be rather difficult to say, And because mochi is more popular and easier to pronounce, it’s easy to stereotype daifuku as mochi. People also have this misconception that daifuku was originally made with wrapped fruit. They often have this misconception simply because daifuku became viral on the internet because of vloggers or influencers showed themselves eating fruit daifuku, and although it is true that fruit daifuku is rather popular within the citizens of Japan and other parts of the world, That wasn’t how daifuku originally tasted or looked like. Instead of whole fruit they used a sweetened red bean paste, But considering that daifuku was made in the 18th century where sugar was a luxury item, They had to use salted red bean filling instead.