Tawawa is a distinctive confectionery created in Aomori, one of Japan’s best-known apple-growing regions. It is a unique Japanese-style apple pie that combines sweet-tart Aomori apples with rich, buttery pastry.
Tawawa uses Kogyoku apples (Jonathan apples) grown in Aomori Prefecture. Known for their well-balanced sweetness and tartness, Kogyoku apples are considered particularly suitable for making sweets.
The apples are carefully prepared as an apple glacé by soaking them in a sweet syrup together with liqueur. This process gives the apples a mellow sweetness and rich flavor while preserving the characteristic sweet-tart taste of Kogyoku apples.
The apple glacé is the heart of Tawawa. Rather than simply filling the pastry with ordinary stewed apples, the apples are prepared with a delicate sweetness and a smooth, mellow flavor, giving the finished pie a distinctly Japanese character.
The apple filling is then sandwiched between generous layers of homemade pastry made with plenty of butter and baked until beautifully browned.
One of the most unusual features of Tawawa is its pastry. The dough is repeatedly folded into many layers, creating a substantial structure. After the pastry has been baked until beautifully puffed, it is gently pressed down.
This process produces a pastry that is noticeably thick and firm, rather than light and delicate like some Western-style apple pies. The substantial texture pairs especially well with the soft, mellow apple glacé inside.
Tawawa is made by Okina-ya (Okinaya), a long-established Japanese confectionery shop founded in 1918, during the Taisho era. With its combination of Aomori-grown Kogyoku apples, apple glacé, and rich homemade pastry, the sweet reflects both the region’s apple-growing heritage and Japan’s traditional confectionery culture.
Its deep, rich flavor and substantial texture make Tawawa an original Aomori apple pie with a character all its own. For visitors exploring Aomori’s food culture, it is an appealing example of how locally grown apples can be transformed into a distinctly Japanese confectionery.