This is a sweet for the Japanese Tea Ceremony. Sweets have poetic names, I love that! Sweets for usucha (thin tea) are often named with a nod to the season. Names for the koicha (thick tea) sweets are more zen or abstract. I have learned that poems are a great source for naming both, though there remains still an art to selecting just the right name.
I learned to make this sweet on Saturday. The base is a sweetened white bean paste (which took my sensei all day to make!). We added in a bit of pickled plum paste and a touch of gold flake. I call it Anticipation. The daffodils have begun to push out of the earth, their golden heads I long for.
6 comments:
Very interersting...I had not realized that about the naming of the sweets. Our bulbs are just pushing out, and it can't come too soon!
Ruth
I like the subtleties here! How do they taste?
Interesting....
Glad to see you are using edible gold leaf:*)
Teafan - I LOVE Japanese tea sweets, especially ones with white bean paste! The texture is creamy. The taste of this one is sweet, with a bit of tang and salt from the plum. It's very hard to describe. I hope you get the chance to try one!
I would definitely call this anticipation too after waiting all day. Looks good. Isn't is wonderful to anticipate Spring with the daffodils pushing out of the ground and a few trees beginning to show new growth. Just wonderful!
I like the way the naming is done! Oh, and here the daffodils are getting antsy as well!
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