4月と言えばお花見です。そして、お花見といえば、おいしい食べ物とお酒です。今回は、有名なお花見の食べ物、「花見団子」を紹介します。
April is the month of hanami. And hanami is a time for delicious food and sake. This time, I’d like to introduce the famous hanami food “hanami dango.”

花見団子は、赤（ピンク）、白、緑色の3色の団子を串にさして食べるものです。甘い団子で、味は３つそれぞれ色と味が少し違います。スーパーなどで買う花見団子の味は３つとも同じように感じますが、和菓子屋さんで買うと、赤いものは梅の味がして、白はそのままの団子の味、緑はヨモギという植物の味がします。ヨモギは少し苦いですが、甘い団子と一緒に食べるとおいしいです。ヨモギの代わりに抹茶を使うところもあるそうです。
Hanami dango are dumplings that come in the three colors red (or pink), white, and green, on a stick. They are sweet, and each of the three colored dumplings has a slightly different flavor. If you buy them in the supermarket, they seem like they all have the same flavor, but if you buy them from a traditional wagashi store, the red ones taste like ume (plum), the white ones taste like regular dumplings, and the green ones taste like yomogi (mugwort). Yomogi is a bit bitter, but tastes really good when eaten alongside sweet dumplings. There are also places that use matcha instead of yomogi.

どうして赤白緑の三色かはいろいろな説がありますが、一つは、赤と白は「紅白（こうはく）」と呼ばれて縁起が良い組み合わせであることで、緑は魔除けに良い色だとされています。赤色はピンクに見えるので、ピンクや白があって、緑の葉っぱもある桜の木の色にも見えますね。
There are several theories as to why we use red, white, and green dango. One is that red and white are together called kōhaku, and are an auspicious pair of colors, while green is supposedly effective as a charm against evil spirits. Since the red dango often looks pink, the colors pink, white, and green are also the colors of sakura trees.

スーパーで3色団子を見ると、春が来たなと思います。季節が変わる時はウキウキしますね。
When we see three-colored dango in the supermarkets, we feel like spring is here. It’s exciting when the seasons change!