Unte Pastry Shop | Healthy & Natural Style Be. Okinawa

Unten Pastry Shop is a pastry shop that makes pastries

while placing great importance on the original flavors of the ingredients.

We visited their main shop in Tomigusuku City

to learn more about the care and passion that go into their products.

Unten Pastry Shop

Each and every ingredient is carefully grown by producers. Yet, poorly shaped fruits and unsold fresh pastries are discarded every day. Seeing such a situation, the members of the team felt that it was a terrible waste and decided to open Unten Pastry Shop, hoping to share the producers' love towards the ingredients with customers.

The concept is “pastries that bring you delight”

At Unten Pastry Shop, they place great emphasis on bringing out the original flavors of the ingredients. When developing a new product, they first select an ingredient and then begin trial production by considering what sort of pastry will highlight the flavor of the ingredient itself, instead of deciding to use a particular ingredient simply because they have a particular pastry they want to make. In order to highlight the original flavors of the ingredients, simple basic ingredients are selected, such as kibisato (cane sugar) instead of white sugar and soymilk cream instead of whipping cream.

Fruits that do not meet market standards for size, shape, or color, or that have scratches or other differences in appearance, are judged as "substandard.” Such “imperfect” fruits are actively used at Unten Pastry Shop. This is because they have heard a farmer say that even if the fruits are scratched, to them, they are all grown with the same amount of care. “We thought that if we could buy those “imperfect” fruits at a fair price and use them in our pastries, we might be able to help the producers." Ms. Furugen of Unten Pastry Shop told us the reason for using substandard fruits.

Creating a shop that cares about the environment and food waste

It is not only the ingredients that they care about as a shop, but also the environment and the problem of food waste. In order to reduce the burden on the environment, they try to source ingredients from as close to home as possible, such as from Okinawa Prefecture or other parts of Japan. As a result, many Okinawan ingredients are used in their products, including brown sugar, purple sweet potatoes, shikuwasa, kibisato (cane sugar), and cage-free eggs. Substandard fruits from Okinawa, such as mangoes, tankan, and passion fruits, are also used when they are in season. They are conscious about valuing the materials that are around them at the moment without being influenced by trends.

Upon entering the store, you may notice that only a very small number of cakes are lined up in the showcase. In fact, this is part of an effort to reduce food waste. “If we always have a large number of fresh cakes on display in the showcase, unsold items will be discarded. To prevent this, we keep the number of items in the showcase to a minimum and add the finishing touches to the cakes after receiving each order," says Ms. Furugen. For example, the Mont Blanc is finished off with cream after receiving an order.

Gently flavored sweets, in which you can taste the original flavors of the ingredients, are popular

The most popular product “Meguru Cookie” has a crunchy texture and mild sweetness of kibisato (cane sugar). This cookie is made with "bagasse," the residue of squeezed sugarcane, and available in three flavors: plain, brown sugar, and purple sweet potato.

Photo: Meguru Cookies

“Purple Sweet Potato Mont Blanc" is the most popular among their fresh cake products. This product offers a gentle flavor accented with a crispy meringue base made of kibisato (cane sugar), while the natural sweetness of Okinawa purple sweet potato is enhanced by soymilk cream.

Photo: Purple Sweet Potato Mont Blanc

Other popular baked goods include "Okinawa Lemon Cake” made with juice of Okinawa shikuwasa, bagasse, and other ingredients. When you put it in your mouth, you can feel the refreshing sourness of shikuwasa in its moist texture.

Photo: Okinawa Lemon Cake

There is also an eat-in area on the second floor

Entering the store and going up the stairs on the right-hand side leads to an eat-in area. This space is separate from the retail area and is dedicated to eat-in, making it a popular space for customers to spend a relaxing time while enjoying their desserts.

Photo: eat-in area on the 2nd floor

The hope of the team is that one day the concept of "substandard" fruits itself will disappear, and the ingredients that suit the local characteristics will be used in each place. “We hope that through the pastries of Unten Pastry Shop, people will learn that delicious pastries can be made from “imperfect” fruits," says Ms. Furugen.

Sweets from Unten Pastry shop are made with care for the producers, ingredients, and the environment. Try the "sweets that bring you delight" at their shop on your next trip to Okinawa!