Red Bean Paste...What Does It Taste Like?

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It's a very earthy flavor, not really bitter or sweet. I've had it a few times and appreciate it, but I think it's likely an acquired taste.
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pururun said:
It's a very earthy flavor, not really bitter or sweet. I've had it a few times and appreciate it, but I think it's likely an acquired taste.
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I have to disagree on the sweetness.

Red bean paste tastes very sweet to me. It does have that bit of an earthy note, and kind of a mealy texture, but mostly it's an intense, otherwise bland sweetness. Take the starchy sweet note from baked beans, amplify it and remove any kind of spice; it's like that.

In my (limited) experience, Japanese desserts are really pretty but are usually just a bland but sweet mixture of starch, rice flower and red bean paste. A lot of red bean paste; sometimes it'll be a 2cm-thick layer of it in the middle of something, which you discover by biting into cold, hard sweetness.

Probably there are Japanese street desserts that taste good and aren't so fancy-looking; this is my experience with the stuff at the Asian deli, which seems designed for eye appeal.
 
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Aunt Carol said:
I have to disagree on the sweetness.

Red bean paste tastes very sweet to me. It does have that bit of an earthy note, and kind of a mealy texture, but mostly it's an intense, otherwise bland sweetness. Take the starchy sweet note from baked beans, amplify it and remove any kind of space; it's like that.

In my (limited) experience, Japanese desserts are really pretty but are usually just a bland but sweet mixture of starch, rice flower and red bean paste. A lot of red bean paste; sometimes it'll be a 2cm-thick layer of it in the middle of something, which you discover by biting into cold, hard sweetness.

Probably there are Japanese street desserts that taste good and aren't so fancy-looking; this is my experience with the stuff at the Asian deli, which seems designed for eye appeal.
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I don’t find it that sweet, but otherwise I think that’s exactly how it tastes. That being said, I’ve found the sweetness varies depending where I have it.

I was trying to explain the flavour to a friend the other day.
 
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I was at this sushi place once and the owner, who was really cool, gave me a free dessert. They were little fried balls with red bean paste in them. They weren't too sweet but still very tasty. Imagine a semi-sweet hummus I guess, but within a crispy fried shell.
 
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Mega Man 2 Intro - NES said:
I think "not very sweet" is only the case for a lot of Westerners because we're raised on sugar.
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The Japanese actually trend on enjoying sweeter food with some aversion to spiciness, I don't know if we nuked it into them or not but they are probably closer to the USA than you'd think, but they still do require things like Oreos being made into cream filled wafer/waffles to reduce the sugary cream, whereas the USA double stuffs their bullshit. Oddly enough Hershey chocolate is seen as too acidic by most other cultures and not sweet enough.
 
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