Karintou are traditional sweet confectionaries made from a flour based cracker that is fermented and then is deep-fried and covered with a sugar coating. The sugar coating can be a white sugar but many times it is a dark sugar coating that is rich in minerals. The cracker can have different ingredients folded into it like mattcha, peanuts, soybeans, or sesame seeds.
In the basement of Tokyo Station’s GranSta area is a very, very popular booth selling karintou called Nihonbashi Nishiki Hourin. I have never seen the shop without a long line. The variety of flavors is what makes this shop a lot of fun: ginger, coffee, vegetables, shichimi tougarashi, black pepper, and kinpira gobou. The packaging is perfect for picking up a variety of flavors as they are small packs priced at 330 JPY.
Chiyoda-ku, Marunouchi 1-9-1, Tokyo Station GranSta B1
8:00 – 22:00 (closes at 21:00 on Sunday and holidays)
Food Sake Tokyo 