MAM CAFE's Commitment: Monaka Series

The Monaka series pursues the joy of “eating” as well as safety, security and deliciousness.
MAM MONAKA uses high-quality raw materials and incorporates new technology to improve quality while preserving traditional manufacturing methods to deliver high-quality products.
Until a single product is released to the world, the staff will exchange various opinions, collect various selfish opinions such as "I want to eat that", "This looks delicious", and expand the possibilities to infinity. Each MAMCAFE product, which is created through repeated planning, sampling, and testing, is filled with the passion of each producer.

The glutinous rice used at MAM MONAKA is Shin-Taisho glutinous rice, which is characterized by its stickiness, firmness, smoothness and sweet flavor.
It is built on land in the Hokuriku region that features a mixture of rice paddies and houses.
Since ancient times, it has been an area with abundant clean water, and there were many paddy fields.
In the days when each family grew rice, it was the beginning of maintaining and managing a house close to the paddy field so that it was easy to manage the water.

≫ Ideas for Cultivation Shin-Taisho glutinous rice is sown three times.
In addition, the fields are divided into flat land with a gentle slope and intermediate and mountainous land that has been made into rice paddies by leveling the mountains.
The reason for this lies in the characteristics of Shin-Taisho glutinous rice.
It has a good reputation compared to other glutinous rice, but it has the disadvantage of being very easy to germinate.
When the buds appear, the nutrients of the rice are absorbed by the buds, resulting in a loss of quality.
As a countermeasure, we divide the growing period and separate the cultivation areas into flatlands and hilly and mountainous areas, and use even the slightest difference in temperature to stagger the timing of rice harvesting so as not to reduce quality.

≫ 120 days until harvest
From May 15th, 3 people will start planting glutinous rice and harvest it after about 120 days.
About 500kg of brown rice is produced per 10a. *1 are = 10m x 10m
During this period of about 120 days, farmers are especially careful of wildlife damage caused by extreme weather and wild boars in the mountains.
When water is depleted, yields can drop by up to 50% due to drought damage.
Even if there is damage to wild boars, the 1m radius of the area that the wild boar passed through must be cut down because it will smell, and the yield will be reduced by 90% in the worst case, not in the whole field, but in one field. In addition, we calculate the risk backwards and convert about 20% of the overall risk into production.
In the subsequent rice polishing, where normal rice polishing removes 10% of the rice, yellow spots may be visible if the germ remains, so remove nearly 20% of the germ as much as possible. Using 100% of the carefully commercialized Shin-Taisho glutinous rice, we move on to the production of monaka seeds.

Kanazawa has long had a flourishing tea ceremony culture, and Japanese confectionery has permeated the lives of the common people and become one of the representative food cultures. Monaka also spreads in the same way, and in Kanazawa, red and white monaka called “fukuume” is eaten as a celebratory confectionery that is indispensable for the New Year.
MAM MONAKA monaka, made in Kanazawa, uses all natural coloring agents.
The Shin-Taisho glutinous rice, which is the raw material, has a very strong fragrant aroma even after baking, which will whet your appetite.

It is very difficult to bake the monaka, and the temperature in the factory reaches nearly 40 degrees in the middle of summer. Bake the monaka at about 200 degrees and remove the baked seeds from the mold with your bare hands. Therefore, two craftsmen are required for one machine (one type of seed) in the morning and afternoon. In addition, about 5 staff members are involved in the production of MAM MONAKA, including the person who prepares the dough, the person who inspects and packs.
MAM MONAKA is very large and delicate for a monaka species. The underside of the seeds is also scorched, making it difficult to control the heat, resulting in uneven browning and damage (cracks or damage when removing from the mold). However, the non-standard ones are not only discarded, but also recycled as winter plum powder. (Scorched color monaka only)

≫ More than 700 types of raw materials
We use our own experience and know-how to combine more than 700 types of raw materials to develop a single soup.
Although it is difficult to select and mix the raw materials to be used, delicate adjustments are possible due to the wide variety of types.

≫ We use all dried raw materials to make the most of raw materials, but we want to deliver products that are "safe, secure, and delicious" as well as the joy of "eating", so we use spray-drying and freeze-drying.・We select drying methods that maximize the use of raw materials, such as hot air drying and natural drying.

≫ A team of 5 people puts the carefully selected raw materials into each monaka by hand, one by one. .
The shapes of monaka and ingredients vary, and it is difficult to align the mating surfaces perfectly when crimping.
In addition to the delicate manual work that requires perseverance, standing work requires physical strength, but there are things that can only be done by human hands.

≫ When the matching is completed during the bagging, the team will put them in the bag one by one. One person is in charge of the sealing machine and packs the product to complete the product.
Instead of relying on large machines, we pack each bag while checking it with our own eyes.

In this way, MAM MONAKA is created by hand by skilled craftsmen, sparing no effort during manufacturing.