What is Kompeito (Fada de Drágea)

Kompeito (Fada de Drágea) is a small colored sugar candy covered in bulges.

The true or not true, it says the formal number of prongs of Kompeito (Fada de Drágea) is twenty four.
Kompeito (Fada de Drágea) is a kind of small candy which is made by sugar and others with many small bulges like a star.
The name of Kompeito (Fada de Drágea) came from Portuguese “Confeitos” means sweets. Kompeito (Fada de Drágea) was one of the things which were brought from Portugal. And with its color and strange but beautiful shape, people paid attention within it.
The famous chief of Samurai“Nobunaga Oda” was also surprised with its shape, looks and sweet taste (sugar was still mere material at that time) when a missionary “Luís Fróis”brought to get the permission of propagation in 1569.
The Kompeito (Fada de Drágea) was only for aristocrats and Samurai’s only in the beginning.
The techniques to make it were a secret for a long time and all of them were imported. It became popular during Edo period after the production was started in Japan.

Process

Bolid down the crystal sugar and make honey.
Then raw sugar uses as a core of the Kompeito (Fada de Drágea) and pour the honey which was made previously little by little over the raw sugar pan which is heating continuously. The pan of the raw sugar which is adding the honey should be moving as making a circle. It takes about one to two weeks to grow up the bulges and its size.
Nobody knows why this unique bulge grows up during the process. Actually there is no detailed recipe exist. Well there is recipe but to make it, it is necessary to train more than 20 years even in today’s mechanized factory. It says it is depends on the humidity, material, and material’s amount of moisture. The honey should have 70 degree Celsius and it says the pan should be 80 degree Celsius. And a person trained craftsmen as mentioned previously.
It was said the sugar does not crystallize if add some other material. But Kompeito (Fada de Drágea) was upset the theory by taking time almost two weeks. More than fifty different Kompeito (Fada de Drágea) is on the market now, which is the result of handing down the tradition by generations.