Taberu Mokumoku Kumo: English Instructions for Meiji's Edible Cloud Kit
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Most Japanese DIY candy asks you to build something — a tiny burger, a tray of sushi, a jelly you set and cut. Taberu Mokumoku Kumo asks for almost nothing. You stir a powder into a little water, and it swells into a bright white foam that looks exactly like a cloud. Then you eat it a spoonful at a time, dipped in a pale blue "sky powder". The name is the whole idea: taberu means "to eat", and mokumoku is the Japanese sound for something billowing up.
What You're Making
Awa-gumo, the foam cloud
Awa means foam or bubbles, gumo is cloud. It starts as a white powder called kumo no moto, "the base for a cloud", and turns into a soft, airy foam once it meets water. Yogurt flavour.
Sora powder, the sky
Sora is the sky, and the powder is the blue of one. You don't mix it in — it sits in its own well, and each spoonful of cloud is dipped into it. Soda flavour.
Yogurt soda
The two flavours are designed to be eaten together. On its own the cloud is mild; the sky powder is where most of the sweetness comes from.
Meiji Chewing Gum
Not Kracie, who make Popin' Cookin' and Nerunerunerune, and not the Meiji that makes chocolate — this is Meiji Chewing Gum, a separate company with its own range of make-it-yourself sweets.
Inside the pack: a plastic tray, a small spoon, the cloud powder (雲のもと) and the sky powder (空パウダー). The only thing you supply is water in a cup. The whole pack is 18 g — this is a small, one-person sweet, not a party kit.
Why It's Different From the Other Kits
If you have made a Nerunerunerune or a W Slime Jelly, you have done most of this already: powder, water, stir. What is different is how little there is to get wrong. There is no second powder that has to go in at the right moment, nothing to shape, nothing to set, and no heat.
It is one texture trick, done well. The fun is watching a spoonful of powder and a splash of water turn into something several times its size, and then finding that it has almost no weight on your tongue. It is the kit we would hand to someone who says they are not really interested in DIY sweets, and one of the easiest for small children to finish on their own.
How to Make It
The pack asks for three things before step 1, and they are worth doing: wash your hands, rinse the tray and spoon, and finish making it before you start eating. The water level is marked by a line inside the cloud-shaped well — use that line rather than guessing, because the amount of water is what decides how the foam turns out.
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Water to the line, then all of the cloud powder
Pour water into the large cloud-shaped well up to the printed line. Tip in the whole sachet of cloud powder and stir slowly with the spoon until the powder has dissolved. Within a few moments it starts to puff up into a thick white foam. Keep going until there is no dry powder left and the foam is even.
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Sky powder into the small well
Empty the whole sachet of blue sky powder into the smaller well — the one marked with a musical note on the tray. Leave it there. It is a dip, not an ingredient to stir in.
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Scoop, dip, eat
Scoop a bite-sized piece of the cloud onto the end of the narrow spoon, press it into the sky powder, and eat it. Repeat until it's gone. The foam is stretchy when you lift it — that is normal, and it collapses the moment it's in your mouth.
Getting It Right
What makes the difference
- Stir slowly. The pack says so in as many words (yukkuri mazeyō). Slow, steady stirring gives a thick, even foam; frantic whisking splashes water out of a very small well.
- Trust the line. Too much water gives you a runny foam that won't hold on the spoon. Too little and powder stays dry in the corners.
- Be generous with the sky powder. The cloud itself is mild. Pressing each spoonful well into the powder is what gives you the full yogurt-soda taste.
- Eat it straight away. Foam is at its best right after you make it. Like everything in this range, it does not improve with waiting.
What the Japanese on the Pack Says
The words worth recognising
- たべるモクモク雲 (taberu mokumoku kumo) — "edible billowing cloud", the product name.
- 雲のもと (kumo no moto) — the cloud powder. Moto means "the base for", and you will see it on sachets across Japanese DIY candy.
- 空パウダー (sora paudā) — the blue sky powder.
- あわ雲 (awa-gumo) — "foam cloud", what the cloud powder becomes.
- 線まで (sen made) — "up to the line". The water instruction.
- ゆっくりまぜよう (yukkuri mazeyō) — "stir slowly".
- ひとくちサイズ (hitokuchi saizu) — "bite-sized". How much to scoop at a time.
Common Questions
Does it need a microwave?
No. Water is the only thing you add, and there is no heat step at all — one of the kits covered in our guide to Japanese candy kits you can make without a microwave.
What does it taste like?
Yogurt soda. The cloud is a light yogurt flavour and the sky powder is soda, and the pack means them to be eaten together. The texture is the headline: it is airy, a little stretchy on the spoon, and gone almost as soon as it's in your mouth.
The pack shows it on a stick. Is there one?
What looks like a stick on the front of the pack is the spoon that comes with it — a narrow white spoon. You scoop a bite of cloud onto its end, dip it in the sky powder and eat it straight off the spoon.
What about allergens?
The manufacturer declares none of Japan's designated allergens in the ingredients, but notes that it is made in a facility that also handles walnut, wheat, egg and milk. The printed pack is always the definitive source, so check it before eating, especially with an allergy.
How long does it take?
A couple of minutes from opening the pack to the first spoonful. With nothing to set or shape, there is no waiting step.
My foam went runny. What happened?
Almost always too much water. The line in the well is the measure; filling past it thins the foam out. Water decides more outcomes across Japanese DIY candy than anything else — we went into why water is behind most failures separately.
Make a cloud
We post Taberu Mokumoku Kumo from our shop in Tokyo, alongside the rest of the Meiji Chewing Gum kits.
Get Taberu Mokumoku Kumo →