Haricot azuki

Cooked in twice, in stages. Add it early and the skins toughen for good.

The bean water dyes the grain pink, which was always the point.

The sweet bean exists to be eaten against this. Whole confection tradition, one job.

Sweet bean paste against a cube with no flavour and a clean snap.

Toasted seed over sweet earth — the roast is shared, the texture is not.

Two floury sweetnesses. Japan puts them in the same bowl and adds nothing.

A pinch in the paste. Without it the bean tastes of sugar and nothing else.

Cooked-milk lactones over bean earth; shaved ice keeps the whole thing awake.

Sweet bean against a roast rather than a bitterness. Softer than the matcha version.

Sweet bean paste is engineered to be drunk against bitterness. Nothing else fits.

Earthy bean sweetness under musky fruit; the dessert soup runs on both being mild.

Hot toast, cold paste, salted butter between. The salt is what makes it work.

Sweet earth under bitter roast — the same bowl every Japanese sweet shop sells.

Earthy sweet bean under a bright floral top note. The bean is the ballast.

Two sweet starches; the bean brings the mineral floor.

Both earthy-bitter with a red-fruit edge; the bean supplies body, the cocoa the tail.

Oak lands on the bean's malt and the paste stops being a children's dessert.