Japanese Sweets in the Tea Ceremony

In the tea ceremony, it is necessary to serve Japanese sweets which emphasize tea flavor. Such Japanese sweets is especially called tyagashi. Tyagashi is generally seasonal sweets and casually associated with charm of each of the four seasons. Of course, hot sweets is served in the cold weather, and cool sweets is served in the hot weather. In addition to this, the tea ceremony themes its sweets.

The tyagashi is classified into two types: omogashi and higashi.
Omogashi is the main sweets and voluminous, but it is made with no butter, cheese or fat. For example, manju (buns with bean-jam filling), yokan (bars of sweet jellied azuki-bean paste), kinton (mashed sweet potatoes), neriki (cakes made of white bean jam which is artistically colored or shaped) and so on. And they have beautiful kamei. In addition to this, there are various features of omogashi as follows:

　　　　・It has a gentler fragrance (reserved fragrance).

　　　　・It is very beautiful to look at.

　　　　・It has a texture melting in the mouth.

　　　　・It is casually associated with charm of each of the four seasons.

Higashi is dried or desiccated sweets. For example, rakugan (hard candy), konpeito (small colored sugar candy covered in bulges), rice confectionery and so on.
Normally, higashi is eaten when partaking of light green tea whereas, omogashi  is served with the fuller-bodied green tea.

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