It got the name in the 1920′s when students living near Tokyo University started eating a lot of this and the name stuck (daigaku = university). It was originally sold at a small shop near the main gate of the university. It’s a pretty common dessert all around Japan these days.

Re: Muscat of Alexandria – the poster above already commented on how different they taste, but I wanted to add that they’re also used in dessert wines! I don’t know if you drink wine, but if you paid attention to the differences in flavour, texture, and body of wines the same way you do candy, you’d definitely notice the differences! And our farmer’s market here in Santa Barbara has a couple vendors that will sell wine grape juice (currently syrah, cabernet, and merlot, with something added to prevent fermentation since they’re so naturally sugary!), and OH GOODNESS it’s amazing! http://www.meiersjuice.com/ sells a few different types of sparkling grape juices as well!

If you’re ever at a farmers market in New York in the late summer or early autumn, try to find a grape vendor — you can usually sample the different grape varieties they have, and it is so crazy to me how different in taste and texture they are from each other and from supermarket grapes. I mean, I know that most supermarket produce is bred for size/shape/stability rather than taste, but some things I can’t really tell the difference in — bell peppers from the farmers market vs grocery store bell peppers, for example. But the grapes, whoa!