How about experiencing the different seasons together with green tea and wagashi?
Traditional Japanese confectioneries are known as wagashi.
Made using simple ingredients such as sugar, adzuki beans, and rice, they’re designed to be enjoyed together with matcha tea, so a lot of them are sweet-tasting.
Another thing to bear in mind is that many of them are seasonally-themed, and are intended to be eaten in accordance with the seasons.
I’m going to be introducing some wagashi that not only taste delicious but look wonderful.
Wagashi stores sell a range of seasonally-themed higashi (dried candies).
These ones have an early summer theme: a green maple leaf, blue water ripples, and a yellow butterfly.
These candies are so beautifully shaped and vividly colored that it seems a shame to eat them!
Higashi are often eaten together with a type of weak matcha tea called o-usu.
These are namagashi (fresh sweets), which are eaten along with a type of strong matcha tea called koicha.
These ones also have an early summer theme. Namagashi are individually hand crafted into these shapes by confectioners.
They have fillings like anko (red bean paste) inside, so they’re quite filling.
These two are a plum and an uguisu (Japanese bush warbler).
They’ve got an early spring theme, and are eaten around January and February.
The pink of the plum and the green uguisu go together so beautifully!
Every different time of year has its own wagashi to go with it.
These sanshoku dango are an essential snack during the cherry blossom season—pink, white, and green dango (sweet dumplings made from rice flour) on an easy-to-eat stick.
They have a lovely, gentle sweetness.
In May, the wagashi of choice are kashiwa-mochi, which are mochi (sticky rice cakes) made from rice flour, with an anko filling, and wrapped in a kashiwa (oak) leaf—the leaf isn’t edible.
They’re eaten around the time of the Tango no Sekku celebrations on May 5th, an event that celebrates the growth of boys.
Japan’s traditional confectionery is full of charm.
If you get the chance, make sure you try some while experiencing Japan’s different seasons.
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