Key Takeaways: Beika sells exactly six flavors in the United States: Teriyaki, Butter, Kinako, Sea Salt, Black Bean, and Mame Mochi. Four are traditional (Sea Salt, Black Bean, Mame Mochi, Kinako) and two are modern (Teriyaki, Butter). All six are crispy rice snacks built on 100% Japanese rice, but they split into two making styles: senbei-style, pressed from milled non-glutinous rice (Butter, Kinako, Black Bean), and okaki-style, kneaded from whole glutinous mochi rice (Mame Mochi, Sea Salt, Teriyaki). Here is each one by taste, texture, and the moment it fits best.

Ask most American shoppers to describe a Japanese rice cracker and they picture one thing: a savory, soy-glazed disc. That answer captures a single style and misses how wide the category actually runs. The umbrella word is beika (米菓), which covers every Japanese rice snack, from crisp pressed senbei to kneaded okaki and tiny arare. Beika's own U.S. lineup makes the range concrete, and it is smaller and more specific than a shelf of unnamed imports suggests.

Beika sells six flavors, no more and no less: Sea Salt, Black Bean, Mame Mochi, Kinako, Teriyaki, and Butter. Four of them are traditional flavors with deep roots in Japanese snacking, and two are modern. Every one is made by Iwatsuka Seika, the rice-cracker maker founded in Nagaoka City, Niigata, in 1947, and every one is built on 100% domestic Japanese rice under the company's kome, gi, kokoro (米・技・心 / rice, technique, heart) philosophy. This guide takes each flavor in turn: what it is, how it is made, whether it leans traditional or modern, how it tastes, and when it is the right one to reach for.

The six Beika flavors at a glance

The table sorts the lineup two ways at once: traditional versus modern, and senbei-style versus okaki-style. Those two axes explain almost everything about how each flavor eats. The sections below take them one at a time.

Two making styles, both crispy: senbei and okaki

Before the flavors, a quick word on making, because it decides texture. Beika (米菓) is the umbrella term for all Japanese rice snacks, and senbei, okaki, and arare all sit under it. They differ in the rice they start from and the path that rice takes.

Senbei starts from uruchi rice, the everyday non-glutinous grain. Iwatsuka washes and soaks it, then mills it into flour in-house at low heat, steams it, and kneads it into a dough, sometimes working the dough repeatedly. The dough is rolled, cut, dried, rested, then baked in stages before seasoning. Butter, Kinako, and Black Bean are made this way, which is why they range from light and crisp to sturdy.

Okaki starts from mochi rice, the glutinous grain. Here the whole grains are steamed intact and kneaded into mochi, then molded into blocks, cooled in a controlled way so the starch sets, cut while still soft with water-coated blades, dried, and toasted. Mame Mochi, Sea Salt, and Teriyaki come from this path. The result is a different crispness, delicate in Sea Salt and Mame Mochi, hearty and bold in Teriyaki. Both styles finish crisp; the making is what varies. You can read the fuller process in our guide to how Japanese rice crackers are made.

Sea Salt: the plainest, and the point

Sea Salt is the flavor that shows what the rice can do on its own. It is an okaki-style cracker, kneaded from mochi rice, finished with nothing more than a light salt seasoning. This is one of the oldest ideas in Japanese snacking: let good rice carry the plate, and add only enough salt to bring it forward. It sits firmly in the traditional camp.

The taste is mineral and restrained, more about texture and grain than about any topping. The bite is a delicate crisp that gives way cleanly rather than shattering. Because the seasoning is so light, Sea Salt is the flavor where sourcing matters most, and Iwatsuka's commitment to fresh, low-heat-milled domestic rice, in place since 2010, is doing the quiet work here. Reach for Sea Salt when you want a snack that stays out of the way, or a clean base to taste the other flavors against.

Black Bean: savory beans baked into the dough

Black Bean is a senbei-style cracker with steamed black beans worked directly into the rice dough before baking, so the beans are part of the cracker rather than a topping. It is the sturdiest of the six, a satisfying, sit-down kind of crunch. Bean-studded rice crackers are a long-standing part of Japanese snacking, which places Black Bean squarely in the traditional group.

The flavor is gently nutty from the beans, with a light salt on the cracker itself and a faintly sweet edge where the bean meets the toasted rice. At 7.8 ounces it is the largest bag in the lineup, which suits its role: this is the flavor for sharing across a table, or for a longer snacking session where you want something with more chew and body than a thin crisp. It pairs naturally with green tea, where the tea's clean bitterness frames the bean's roundness.

Mame Mochi: kneaded mochi rice with roasted soybeans

Mame Mochi is okaki through and through: whole mochi rice steamed and kneaded, with roasted soybeans folded into the dough. That roasted-soybean step gives it a mellow, nutty depth the other flavors do not have. It is a traditional flavor, and one of the most texturally interesting in the range, because the okaki base reads as a light, airy crisp rather than a dense one.

The taste leads with toasted soybean, backed by the clean rice character of the okaki base and a restrained salt. It is delicate where Black Bean is sturdy, so the two make a useful contrast if you want to taste how much the making style changes a bean-and-rice idea. Reach for Mame Mochi when you want something with quiet complexity, a snack that rewards slowing down.

Kinako: roasted soybean flour, quietly sweet

Kinako is roasted soybean flour, a Japanese ingredient that has dusted sweets and rice cakes for generations. As a Beika flavor it is a senbei-style cracker, light and crisp, finished with a kinako dusting that reads gently sweet and toasty rather than sugary. It is a traditional flavor, and the only one in the lineup that leans sweet.

The taste is soft-spoken: a nutty, roasted note with a whisper of sweetness, closer to a toasted-grain biscuit than to a dessert. At 2.6 ounces it is a small bag, which fits a flavor built for a tea break rather than a bowl on the table. Kinako is the flavor to reach for in the afternoon, with green tea or hojicha, when you want something lightly sweet that will not overwhelm the cup.

Teriyaki: the bold, hearty modern crunch

Teriyaki is the loudest flavor in the lineup and one of its two modern entries. It is okaki-style, built on kneaded mochi rice, and finished with a sweet-savory glaze that gives it a bold, hearty crunch. Where Sea Salt whispers, Teriyaki announces itself.

The glaze carries a caramelized sweetness over a savory base, and the okaki crunch underneath is substantial enough to stand up to it. This is the flavor for people who came in expecting a savory Japanese cracker and want the fullest version of that idea. At 6.8 ounces it is a generous bag, well suited to sharing or to a movie-night bowl. Pair it with something crisp and cold, or with plain green tea to reset the palate between bites.

Butter: the gentlest, most modern entry

Butter is the second modern flavor and the gentlest doorway into the whole lineup. It is a senbei-style cracker, light and crisp, with a soft dairy richness that is easy to like on the first bite. Dairy is a relatively recent thread in Japanese baked goods, which is what makes Butter modern rather than traditional.

The taste is smooth and lightly rich without being heavy, the kind of flavor that disappears quickly because you keep reaching for another. At 2.4 ounces it is the smallest bag, and it plays well as a first taste for anyone unsure whether they will like a rice cracker at all. Reach for Butter when you are introducing someone to the category, or when you want something comforting and low-key with coffee or tea.

Beyond the six: classic rice-cracker flavors across Japan

Beika's six flavors are the lineup you can buy. Across Japan more broadly, rice crackers appear in a wider set of classic registers that are worth knowing as category context, even though they are not Beika products. The most familiar is the soy-glaze heritage, where soy sauce is brushed onto grilled rice discs. This style crystallized during the Edo period around a teahouse in Soka, in what is now Saitama Prefecture, and Soka senbei remains a regional name centuries later.

Other classic finishes seen across Japan include nori, a toasted-seaweed wrap or flake that adds a marine, vegetal note; goma, or sesame, studded across the surface for a nutty, toasted character; and ume, the salt-pickled Japanese plum that reads bright, sour, and salty. These are widely loved traditions across the country, and they help explain how varied the broader beika world is. To be clear, none of them is a Beika flavor; the Beika lineup is the six covered above. For the wider family map, see our overview of the types of Japanese rice crackers.

Which Beika flavor to reach for

If you are new to Japanese rice crackers, start with Butter. It is the softest landing, gently rich and easy to like, and it sets a comfortable reference before you branch out. From there, Sea Salt shows you what the rice tastes like with almost nothing added, which is the clearest window into why the category exists at all.

For a savory session with more body, Black Bean and Teriyaki are the two to keep on hand: Black Bean for a sturdy, nutty crunch, Teriyaki for a bold sweet-savory glaze. Kinako and Mame Mochi are the quieter, more interesting pair, both playing on roasted soybean, one lightly sweet and one savory. A simple way to taste the range is to try one senbei-style flavor next to one okaki-style flavor and notice how differently they break.

Every flavor uses the same 100% domestic Japanese rice, sourced from across the country, delivered fresh and milled in-house, under the same kome, gi, kokoro philosophy. The full lineup lives at beikamochi.com, with free U.S. shipping over $50.

Frequently asked questions

How many flavors does Beika sell?

Beika sells exactly six flavors in the United States: Sea Salt, Black Bean, Mame Mochi, Kinako, Teriyaki, and Butter. Four are traditional (Sea Salt, Black Bean, Mame Mochi, Kinako) and two are modern (Teriyaki, Butter). That is the complete lineup; there are no other Beika flavors. The six range in bag size from 2.4 ounces for Butter up to 7.8 ounces for Black Bean, so you can match the flavor to the moment, a small bag for a tea break or a larger one for sharing.

Which Beika flavors are traditional and which are modern?

The traditional flavors are Sea Salt, Black Bean, Mame Mochi, and Kinako, each rooted in long-standing Japanese snacking ideas like salted rice, bean-studded crackers, and roasted soybean flour. The two modern flavors are Teriyaki, a bold sweet-savory glaze, and Butter, a gently dairy-rich crisp. So the lineup is a deliberate mix of heritage and newer tastes rather than all one or the other.

What is the difference between senbei-style and okaki-style?

Both are crispy rice crackers, and both fall under beika, the umbrella word for Japanese rice snacks. Senbei-style is pressed from non-glutinous uruchi rice that is milled into flour first, giving Butter, Kinako, and Black Bean their range from light to sturdy. Okaki-style is kneaded from whole glutinous mochi rice, giving Mame Mochi and Sea Salt a delicate crisp and Teriyaki a bold, hearty one.

Is Mame Mochi soft and chewy like mochi ice cream?

No. Despite the name, Mame Mochi is a crispy okaki-style cracker, not a soft chewy mochi. The mochi in the name refers to the glutinous rice it is kneaded from, and mame means bean, for the roasted soybeans folded into the dough. The result is a light, crisp rice cracker with a mellow, nutty depth, closer in texture to Sea Salt than to anything soft or gummy. If you were expecting a chewy dessert, this is a savory snack instead.

Which Beika flavor should a first-timer try?

Butter is the easiest starting point. It is light and crisp with a gentle dairy richness that most people like immediately, which makes it a comfortable introduction to the category. After Butter, Sea Salt is a good second step because its light seasoning lets you taste the rice itself, and from there the savory and roasted-soybean flavors open up.

Where is the rice for Beika crackers grown?

Iwatsuka Seika, the maker behind Beika, uses 100% domestic Japanese rice sourced from across Japan, a commitment the company has held since 2010. Rice is delivered fresh and milled in-house at low heat so it can be used quickly. Iwatsuka is headquartered in Nagaoka City in Niigata Prefecture, a region that ships roughly 60% of Japan's rice crackers, according to JETRO.

Are the six flavors made the same way?

Not quite, and that is by design. Butter, Kinako, and Black Bean are senbei-style, made from non-glutinous rice milled into flour, steamed, kneaded, rolled, and baked. Mame Mochi, Sea Salt, and Teriyaki are okaki-style, made from whole glutinous mochi rice that is steamed, kneaded, molded, cut, dried, and toasted. There is no single universal process; the making style is part of what gives each flavor its texture.

Sources & references

1. Beika. Shop All. https://beikamochi.com/collections/all. Current six-flavor U.S. lineup and pack sizes.
2. Beika. How Japanese Rice Crackers Are Made. beikamochi.com. Senbei vs okaki making processes; in-house low-heat milling.
3. Iwatsuka Seika. Oishisa no Tsuikyu. https://www.iwatsuka.jp/oishisa/. kome, gi, kokoro philosophy; 100% domestic rice commitment.
4. Wikipedia. Senbei. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senbei. Soy-glaze Edo-period origin; Soka tradition; first written senbei reference.
5. Wikipedia. Nori. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nori. Toasted-seaweed tradition across Japan.
6. Wikipedia. Umeboshi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umeboshi. Salt-pickled Japanese plum tradition.
7. JETRO. Discovery Niigata: Food. https://www.jetro.go.jp/en/discoveryniigata/food/. Niigata ships roughly 60% of Japan's rice crackers.
8. The Japan Store. Senbei 101: From History to Varieties of Japanese Round Rice Crackers. thejapanstore.us. Beika family varieties overview.