Mizuame — literally "water candy" — is a clear, thick, glossy Japanese starch syrup made by breaking down the starch of rice, glutinous rice or millet into sugar and boiling the sweet liquid down to a colourless, honey-like gloss. Mild and cleanly sweet with almost no aroma of its own, it is a workhorse of wagashi (traditional Japanese confectionery), where it keeps sweets soft and shiny, prevents sugar from crystallising, and gives the mirror-bright glaze to candied fruit (amezaiku and ringo-ame), the pull of taffy-like sweets and the sheen on skewered dango.