Eye-catching rainbow-colored foods are becoming the latest food craze.
Their vibrant colors make them ideal for pictures to share on social media, and a growing number of people also are making these visually appealing foods at home.
This colorful trend started on Takeshita-dori, a popular shopping street in Tokyo's Harajuku district. Totti Candy Factory, a cotton candy store on the street, sells a five-colored Rainbow Cotton Candy for 900 yen. This cotton candy is about 45 centimeters in diameter at its widest point, and during busy months customers snap up about 25,000 of the sweet treats.
"I learned about this shop on social media, and it piqued my interest," a 32-year-old beautician said as she watched a shop staffer spin the colorful cotton candy. "It's bigger than I imagined and really pretty."
The woman's 4-year-old niece also was impressed. "The rainbow colors are cute," she said with a grin.
The product hit the market three years ago after the candy store developed granulated sugar containing colors and flavors, such as pink for strawberry and yellow for lemon. It also is available in shops in Osaka and Hiroshima.
"This cotton candy is very popular among families and tourists from overseas who visit Harajuku to see something cute and trendy," said an official of Sugar Factory, the Nara Prefecture-based company that operates the store.
Buoyed by the cotton candy's popularity, the company opened Rainbow Sweets Harajuku, which sells a variety of rainbow-colored foods, in May. Among the offerings is the six-color, six-flavor rolled ice cream, which costs 950 yen.
Further along Takeshita-dori, Le Shiner has been selling rainbow grilled cheese sandwiches since November 2017. The 1,080 yen sandwich contains mozzarella cheese in five different colors. When the sandwich is broken and pulled apart, the cheesy filling stretches and the colors form a vivid rainbow. Videos of this interesting sandwich spread on social media and helped build a following among people of all ages.
The rainbow craze has gained momentum because the vibrant foods meet the desire of consumers to share cute photos and videos on social media.
New colors at home
The rage for all foods in rainbow colors is spreading to kitchens at home, where a growing number of people are making colorful versions of everything from cakes and cookies to jelly.
Cookpad, a recipe website, has posted more than 200 recipes featuring the word "rainbow," including pancakes and doughnuts enhanced by food coloring. According to Tokyo-based Cookpad Inc., which operates the website, these rainbow-inspired recipes began increasing from around 2014. They now include dishes including sweets, bread, sushi rolls and pizza.
"Each year, there is a growing trend toward recipes that offer food that is not only easy to make and tasty but also fun to look at. Although these dishes take a little more time and effort to prepare, it seems many people want to surprise their children and friends by making fashionable rainbow-colored foods," a Cookpad spokesperson said.
Mizuki Takahashi, a senior researcher at an institute of color psychology in Kobe, said: "Rainbows have both bright colors including red and yellow, and dark colors such as blue and indigo, and they symbolize power and sanctity. I think the color combinations that exist in a place that transcends people's everyday lives have somehow captured the hearts of people who want to enjoy something out of the ordinary."
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