■Self-Introduction
Ciao a tutti (Italian for “hello everyone”) It's been a little while since my last post, so some of you may have forgotten who I am, but I'm Rebi (Rebecca) from Italy, a Visual Kei band lover and this is my third post on this site. I am currently studying fashion design at a vocational school, and I recently started my second year in April this year. However, there is one thing that has not changed at all since before I came to Japan. That is my love for Japanese visual-kei bands. Whenever I have some time, I go to the live shows of the visual-kei bands I like, and other live shows, and I actively do it without sparing time for sleep (lol). The power of having “Oshi” is truly amazing. No matter how hard life gets, I can get through anything as long as I have my “Oshi”. I hope you will also find your own “Oshi” and cherish each and every day of your life!
■Introducing sweets that even vegans can eat!

Name of the shop: Canelita Sweets
Location of the shop: 1-14-22 Minamihorie, Nishi-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka, a fashionable town
*Marker of the shop: Horie Koen / along Minamihorie Dori
Today I would like to introduce Canelita Sweets, my favorite café in Osaka. This shop is in Amerika-mura (commonly known as Ame-mura), which is a very popular neighborhood among young people. You may have the image of Ame-mura as being full of shops selling second-hand clothes, but in fact there are also many cafés and restaurants with interesting concepts, such as Canelita Sweets, which I will introduce to you soon, which is a shop that specializes in vegan sweets and does not use ingredients of animal origin.
I think most people have the image that vegan sweets don't taste good, but once they get to know the desserts at Canelita Sweets, their image will surely change. I would like to introduce the appeal of Canelita Sweets and the sweets I personally recommend.
■Canelita Sweets' appeal: great looks, great taste and a wide variety of sweets!


The main point of Canelita Sweets is that the sweets on sale look and taste great, and there is a wide variety of sweets to choose from. The shop was originally introduced to me by a vegan friend, and whenever I met with her, she would always say: "Canelita Sweets is the best! Not only do the sweets look pretty but they taste great too! I can't wait for you to try them!". As I was living in Kobe at the time I had to decide to visit Canelita Sweets when I went to Osaka eventually. Later, when I moved to Osaka, I headed straight to Canelita Sweets... and to my surprise, from the moment I visited the shop for the first time, I was hooked by its charms and started going there once a week. Now I am a heavy user of this shop (laughs).
Rosie, the owner and pastry chef of Canelita Sweets, is a vegan herself and wanted to ‘change the bad image of vegan sweets and create vegan sweets that can be enjoyed by people who normally wouldn’t be able to eat sweets due to allergies or other health or personal reasons. This led to the creation of vegan sweets made exclusively from plant-based ingredients. As a result, someone like me who’s lactose intolerant and who cannot eat milk and dairy products, and processed foods made from them can now eat sweet and tasty sweets.
In my opinion, many people think that vegan sweets are dry and not tasty. However, the sweets here are so tasty that you wouldn't even notice they were vegan if you weren’t told. In particular, the muffins with blueberries and coconut that I bought on my first visit to the shop were the best muffins I have ever had, and I would love non-vegan people to taste them too.
■My personal recommendation for Canelita Sweets: carrot cake.

As well as sweets that can be enjoyed all year round, Canelita Sweets has many seasonal sweets and limited-time-only drinks. Because of this it’s very difficult to choose a recommendation from these, but if I had to narrow it down to a single one, I would choose the carrot cake. This is because Canelita Sweets' carrot cake is so good that you won't be able to eat any other carrot cake. I always loved carrot cake, but Canelita Sweets' carrot cake is one of the best I have ever had.
The first thing that impresses me about this carrot cake is the sponge part. As I mentioned earlier, vegan sweets have an image of being dry. However, this sponge is very moist and rich in flavor. Furthermore, the cream part is also vegan buttercream, so it's not too sweet and goes perfectly with the sponge cake part. Don’t you guys think the carrot and rabbit picture on top are also very cute?
With Canelita Sweets' carrot cake, even those who don't like carrots will be able to enjoy it to the fullest, so if you happen to pass by the shop, why don’t you give it a try?
■Conclusions


The main reason I decided to introduce this shop to everyone was mainly it’s a vegan sweet shop whose cakes and sweets are sodelicious that you wouldn't even notice it was vegan, and because (as far as I know) it is one of the few shops in Osaka that specializes in vegan sweets. However, I would like to add a word of caution so as not to mislead readers: I introduced this shop in the hope that vegans and non-vegans will realize that there is some sort of a misunderstanding with understanding each other. Before I studied in Japan, I also assumed that there were no vegan or vegetarian restaurants in Japan. However, after coming here I realized that I was wrong. In fact, there are shops in Japan that offer vegan and vegetarian meals in different ways, and some of them specialize in high quality meals as well. Just to add, this is how I personally feel, based on what I’ve heard from non-Japanese vegans and vegetarians, and from my own time living in Japan.
Second, do you know that there are people with a condition called “lactose intolerance”? Lactose intolerance is not a disease, but a condition in which the body is unable to digest and absorb the lactose contained in milk and other dairy products. If you have this condition, you cannot eat sweet treats that contain a lot of milk or cream, as milk and dairy products can cause symptoms such as stomach pain and nausea. However, vegan desserts do not contain animal products such as eggs, dairy products (milk, butter, cheese, etc.), honey and gelatine, so they can be eaten by lactose-intolerant people without worries. In other words, Canelita Sweets is a dream come true for me, as I have a sweet tooth but could not eat sweets due to my condition.
In conclusion, what I want to say is that there are vegan and vegetarian people who are so for many different reasons, as well as there are people who cannot eat for various reasons. There’s also people who became vegan or vegetarian as a result of their choice not to eat in terms of health-consciousness, and there are people who became vegan or vegetarian because of their personal views. Instead of stereotyping each other, I would like people to actually try the food in a food establishment like Canelita Sweets. Then they will realize that they have misunderstood! It is with this wish in mind that I decided to introduce Canelita Sweets to you. If you are interested, please visit Canelita Sweets and see for yourself. See you soon! See you soon!
A presto,
Rebecca
※If you want to know more details, please visit the official website of the shop.
※Canelita Sweets also has an online shop at this link.