Bethesda mochi gummy brand wins national trailblazer candy award
Issei eyes expansion of products to embrace textures and flavors from around the world
By
Elia GriffinJune 2, 2026 10:13 a.m.
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A cherry-flavored gummy covered in a layer of dark chocolate – a signature product from Bethesda candy brand Issei Mochi Gummies – received national recognition and praise in May with an award from the National Confectioners Association.
Bethesda resident Mika Shino, founder of Issei, told Bethesda Today last week that winning the Trailblazer Candy award at the Sweets & Snacks Expo in Las Vegas last month was exciting and “humbling.”
The Trailblazer Candy award is given to startup brands that are “disrupting” the candy industry and helping to define the future of candy and snacks, Shino explained.
This is not the first time the company’s chocolate-covered gummy was recognized by the National Confectioners Association, the trade organization that promotes chocolate, candy, mints, gum and snacks. In 2024, Issei won the Small Business Innovator Award at the Sweets & Snacks Expo Most Innovative New Product Awards for its dark chocolate-covered strawberry mochi gummies.
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Receiving recognition again still feels like a “big deal,” Shino said, explaining that her small company is up against large candy brands including The Hershey Co., Smarties Candy Co. and Ferrero.
“It’s such an honor to be embraced by the candy industry,” Shino said. “I started with no connections, no knowledge.”
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According to a May 18 press release, nearly 500 products were entered into the Most Innovative New Product Awards at this year’s Sweets & Snacks Expo, the largest in the awards’ history.
“With a record number of entries this year, the 2026 finalists and winners demonstrate how brands are responding to evolving consumer preferences and creating opportunities for innovative treating,” John Downs, president and CEO of the National Confectioners Association, said in the release.
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This year’s Trailblazer Candy award, as well as the Powerhouse Award, were two new top honors that were introduced to the competition this year, replacing the Best in Show and Small Business Innovator categories, according to the release. The other categories include chocolate, gourmet/premium confections, gum and mints, gummy candies and non-chocolate candy.
Issei also offers mochi gummy flavors such as sour apple, mango, strawberry, yuzu, peach, sour watermelon, tangerine and sour cherry. The gummies are made of rice flour, tapioca, cane sugar, natural flavors and natural dyes such as beets, carrots and turmeric for coloring. Unlike traditional gummy candies, Issei gummies do not use gelatin products, according to the company.
She said her inspiration to create gummy candies made of mochi sparked from her Japanese background and desire to feed her two sons healthy sweets that aren’t packed with sugar and aren’t artificially colored and flavored.
Mochi is a traditional Japanese snack typically made using a mixture of a special rice and water that is repeatedly pounded into a dough. The dough has a chewy and stretchy texture that can be molded into rice cakes, wrapped around ice cream or other ingredients such as sweet red bean paste.
“It became very frustrating as a mom to know that there’s such limited options for better-for-you snacks,” Shino said.
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Shino said that until she started experimenting in her home kitchen and making mochi gummies for her two sons, she never imagined that she would be running her own candy business. Now, Shino said she sees a crossover in her previous career working at UNESCO, which aims to promote connection through cultural heritage, and owning a mochi gummy brand.
“I really started because of my kids and what they were eating, and I wanted them to be proud of their heritage. I wanted to have them see themselves reflected in the candy aisle, that there’s something Asian, not just in the Asian aisle, but it’s next to candy, it’s next to jelly beans,” Shino said.
She named the brand Issei, which she said means a first-generation Japanese immigrant to the U.S., and launched her product in September 2022 in Whole Foods Market.
Shino said she hopes to keep innovating with gummy textures and expanding the flavors available at Issei.
“There are so many amazing opportunities to explore global textures and global flavors,” Shino said.
She added that Issei has more work to do to educate American consumers about mochi in general, noting its unique texture is “really somewhere between a marshmallow and a gummy bear.”
“It doesn’t stick to your teeth,” Shino said. “It’s very squishy.”
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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine