How to eat
Lots of different options.
- suzuki - Eat from least sweet to most sweet.
- His explanation: the sweetness lingers longer that way for koicha.
- My interpretation: eating the sweetest first would ruin your palate for the less-sweet options.
- glenn - “I save my favorite for last”
- Unattributed - Eat highest to lowest
As long as you have a justification glenn .
Number of sweets
Shikaden
Applicable to:
3x sweets:
Usually arranged from upper-right to lower-left.
Okuden, ie Gyo (and Sou)
Applicable to:
As well as the gyo and sou Juuden:
- Gyo no Sou
- Gyo no Shin
- Gyo no Shin Sou
- Sou no Sou
- Sou no Gyo
- Sou no Shin
- Sou no Shin Gyo
5x sweets:
- Omogashi (often manju, something high-ranking)
- Kisetsu-mono (chakin shibori, etc)
- Sao-mono (something sliced, ie youkan)
- Mizumono (ie fruits)
- Nuts
Dried fruits + nuts are nice, to give them something easy to carry back if they don’t finish everything. Otherwise, there isn’t a nice way to store the omogashi for later, or a wet piece of fruit, etc.
Betsuden, ie Shin
Applicable to:
As well as the shin Juuden:
- Shin no Sou
- Shin no Shin
- Shin no Gyo Sou
7x sweets:
- TODO fill in
Regarding arrangement, we’ve heard two different options:
- Manju in upper-right, nuts in lower-left. Everything else arranged neatly in the remaing space.
- Manju in center. Everything else circling the manju.