adzuki bar01

Imuraya Confectionary is a Japanese sweets company that specializes in the sale of adzuki (sweetened red bean) products. They pride themselves on sticking to traditional Japanese flavors and sticking to their strange marketing strategies just as hard.

Recently, Imuraya made a pair of official Twitter posts cautioning people against the stiffness of their top-selling Adzuki Bar! This frozen slab of bean paste is a summer favorite across Japan, but according to Imuraya’s own assertions, they can crack your teeth!

The first post to rock Imuraya’s Twitter feed reads as follows:

Dentist: How’d you knock your teeth out?
Me: An Adzuki Bar…
Dentist: Well that’s no surprise. In the summer many people succumb to Adzuki Bars

Needless to say, the company’s faithful followers were a little shocked, even though the post was probably meant as a joke.  It just doesn’t seem right to make a crack at your own product’s expense.

Then, another surprising Tweet cropped up this Tuesday when the company made a warning post explaining, “Adzuki Bars are hard, so watch your teeth! Also, if you try to eat one right out of the wrapper, your lips and tongue can stick to it, so be careful of that too!” On the one hand, it’s very thoughtful of them to warn us, but on the other, it’s not exactly a flattering message.

Imuraya’s obsession with their product’s hardness comes from a book published in 2010 titled Why are Adzuki Bars Hard? 200 Delicious Random Facts. Apparently, its unyielding nature comes from the fact that no lactose or other fatty ingredients are used, just beans, sugar, corn starch, and salt. But that’s beside the point. When the selling point of your product is its inedibility, that’s a problem and not something to be proud of!

Source: Narinari
Top image: Imuraya