🍱 Yubeshi

Yuzu production is particularly active in Nakacho, Tokushima. The town is particularly suited for yuzu cultivation due to its abundant precipitation and the large temperature difference between daytime and nighttime, and boasts the second largest production of "Kitou Yuzu" in Japan (Tokushima Agricultural Support Center, "Kitou Yuzu" production area initiative). In addition, “Kitou yuzu” is relatively large, beautifully colored, and of high quality. It is a well-known agricultural product throughout Japan, having been registered under the country's Geographical Indications (GI) protection system (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Registration Public Notice, Registration No. 42). Yuzu is also used in a variety of dishes, including "Yubeshi", a preserved food popular in the prefecture, which is made by boiling down the peel of yuzu with sugar and soy sauce. It is not only eaten as a side dish on its own, but also enjoyed as a snack with sake or as an ingredient in ochazuke (=boiled rice in soup). Outside of the prefecture, it is still sold in Kyoto and Ehime as a famous confectionary from the Edo period, but yubeshi, which has taken root in the Aioi district of Nakacho in Tokushima, is only a side food. "Yubeshi" is made around November, when the yuzu trees are fully ripe, by slowly boiling them down over a long period of time. In addition, it is said to have been eaten in Kamikatsu in the 30th of the Showa period, when sugar became widely used in households, and was even more widely produced in the 50th of the Showa period.