Autumn Japanese sweets with matcha: the chestnut season
By Mio.KShare
In Japan, autumn is chestnut season, and the sweets served with tea change with it. Confectioners make sweets from that year's chestnuts: chestnuts set into steamed bean paste, sieved chestnut worked into crumbs, chestnut kneaded with sugar and agar. These are the sweets that sit beside a bowl of matcha at this time of year.
The short answer: in autumn, the classic sweets with matcha are made from that year's chestnuts. Fresh ones include chestnut-crumb mochi (kurikomochi) and chestnut steamed yokan (kuri-mushi yokan). Dry sweets such as rakugan are the other kind of tea sweet. The sweet is eaten first, and the tea after.
I study tea in Tokyo, in the Urasenke school. Here is how the sweets of the season work, and what to look for.
Two kinds of tea sweet
| Kind | What it is | How it is eaten |
|---|---|---|
| Omogashi (main sweet) | A fresh, moist sweet: steamed buns of yam dough, kinton, mochi sweets, and seasonal ones that change through the year | With a single wooden pick (kuromoji) |
| Higashi (dry sweet) | Dry sweets such as pressed sugar (rakugan), crackers and hard sugar candy | Taken by hand onto your own folded paper (kaishi) |
The chestnut sweets of autumn
The confectioner Toraya makes a set of chestnut sweets every autumn using only that year's Japanese chestnuts. They are a good picture of what the season looks like:
- Chestnut steamed yokan (kuri-mushi yōkan). Bean paste mixed with wheat flour and kudzu, with new chestnuts set into it, then steamed. Springier than an ordinary yokan.
- Chestnut-crumb mochi (kurikomochi). Sieved chestnut and white bean paste worked into crumbs and pressed around soft gyūhi wrapped round bean paste. Toraya first made it in 1700.
- A chestnut kneaded sweet. That year's chestnuts, sugar and agar only, with some of the inner skin left in for flavor.
In 2025 most of them were sold from late September to mid-November, while the chestnuts lasted. That is part of the point: a seasonal sweet is eaten in its season.
The folded paper the dry sweets go onto is kaishi; I explain it in what is kaishi.
Why the sweet comes first
In a tea room the sweet is eaten before the tea is drunk, so the tea comes after the sweetness. I write about the pairing in more detail in wagashi and matcha.
At home
- Fresh chestnut sweets do not keep. Eat them the day you buy them or the next. How long different sweets last is in how long does wagashi last.
- Dry sweets travel. If you are outside Japan, dry sweets are the ones most likely to reach you in good condition.
- One sweet is enough. One sweet, then one bowl of thin tea.
Questions I get asked
What Japanese sweets go with matcha in autumn?
Chestnut sweets made from that year's chestnuts, such as chestnut steamed yokan and chestnut-crumb mochi.
What is the difference between omogashi and higashi?
Omogashi are fresh, moist sweets eaten with a wooden pick. Higashi are dry sweets taken by hand onto folded paper.
Do you eat the sweet before or after matcha?
Before. The sweet is finished first, and the tea is drunk after it.
Do chestnut wagashi keep?
Fresh ones do not; eat them within a day or so. Dry sweets keep much longer.
Where this fits
To make the bowl that goes with the sweet, you need a 100-prong bamboo whisk made in Takayama, Nara, a bowl wide enough to whisk in and a bamboo scoop.
Written by Mio.K, who chooses everything in this shop by hand in Japan.