A Quest for the Flavor of Sakura

I’ve always been intrigued by the sakura season in Japan.  In addition to the cherry trees, you can see sakura blossoming all over the supermarkets, cafes and convenience stores, as companies and brands bring out their seasonal sakura treats.  I was curious to find out what the flavor of sakura really is, as I’ve seen it used on both sweet and savory treats.  In addition, I’ve eaten some flowers before (decorative pansies and whatnot) and haven’t really enjoyed the taste.  Therefore, I wanted to find out if these cherry blossom products are worth the hype and actually delicious, or if it’s all in the cute packaging.

I’ve seen people test different sakura snacks online, and the flavor seems to be a bit difficult to describe.  In addition, some seasonal sakura products don’t actually taste of sakura, but have some other ‘red’ flavor, such as cherry or strawberry.  I personally despise the artificial cherry flavoring, and wasn’t going to accept that as the flavor of sakura.  So as I arrived here in March, I was determined to find out the true flavor of sakura.

Luckily, there already were quite a few different treats available, and I wasted no time in trying as many different ones as I could find, in fears that they’d all be gone too soon.  My level of Japanese is not the greatest and (not surprisingly) turned out to be a bit of an obstacle, as I was relying a lot on visual clues, like images of the blossoms.  These often ended up being only decorative and didn’t necessarily have anything to do with the flavor.

However, I did manage to find some seasonally flavored items, perfect for your indoor (or 2021 outdoor) All Japan Hanami.  To give you a bit more insight into the world of sakura products, I have compiled a list of all the items I have tried myself.  I’ve also included some additional descriptions and my own opinions on the items.  The list is by no means comprehensive, and there are still items that I’d like to try myself, but haven’t had the chance yet.  Keep in mind that the range of products can change each year, so some of these items might not be available next year.  Without further ado, let’s get to the treats!

The first sakura product that I purchased was the sakuramochi.  Served between an edible pickled leaf, it has the strongest sakura flavor out of all the items I tried.  As this is one of the more traditional items available, I think it has the true sakura flavor.  The mochi itself is very sticky and mildly sweet, but the leaf that surrounds it has this quite strong, almost sour and savory, yet sweet taste.  It is filled with soft, sweet, and a bit starchy red bean paste.  If you’ve never eaten mochi before, this may not be the one to start with, as the pickled leaf has a very distinct and different flavor to anything I’ve personally tried before.  However, if you are like me and want to know the taste of sakura, sakuramochi is definitely the way to go.

I was off to a strong start, but as this was the first product I tried, I wanted to see what else is out there and if the flavors match.

I’ve seen a bunch of high quality sakura teas available in small shops that specialize in teas.  However, the sakura tea that I tried was from a Lipton assorted tea mix that I just happened to pick up.  The flavor of the tea is based on sakura mochi, and the tea does taste floral.  However, as the sakura flavor is very subtle, the flavor of black tea easily overpowers it.  If you want to experience the sakura flavor in tea form, I recommend getting something a bit more high quality/expensive than Lipton.

Dango is one of those snacks that I’ve wanted to try for a long time.  It’s basically a mochi-like sweet served on a skewer, sometimes covered with sesame seeds, anko (red bean) paste, or grilled and glazed with sweet soy sauce syrup.  I found a pack with three different flavors at the local supermarket, one of which was covered with sakura flavored sweet bean paste.  The texture of the paste reminded me of a thick and soft cookie frosting.  It was very sweet and sugary, but I didn’t notice any fruity or floral flavors.  In my opinion, it was not really worth it.  If you’ve never tried dango, I highly recommend to get the soy sauce glazed one (mitarashi dango – pictured in the middle of the 3), and save the sakura flavor for something else.

This item was the turning point for me.  It was very much an impulse purchase while grabbing lunch (although, not gonna lie, most of these were). Unlike with the others, I had never heard of this type of treat before.  This snack had a very soft layer of mochi filled with some type of sakura flavored cream.  It was like biting into a cloud, which I’m sure sounds amazing, but in this case it was like a cloud of perfume.  There was a subtle flavor of the pickled leaves of sakura mochi, but it was more floral than in the traditional ones.  If you are into really sweet treats, this is the one for you.  To me, it was too overwhelming and I reached the point in which I decided that I had had enough of sakura.  I also realized that I don’t really care for the flavor that much.

Now, I know that I just told you that I had had enough.  And I do still think so.  However, it had been a couple of weeks since my latest sakura taste test, and we stumbled upon one of the cutest cafes in Sapporo called Morihico Coffee.  They had this cake on the menu, and how could I not order it?  I think it is one of the prettiest desserts I’ve ever seen.  And it was delicious!  Quite sweet, with layers of cream, cake and what I thought might be rhubarb jam.  The glaze on top had actual sakura blossoms on it, which had a quite strong pickled flavor to them.  I think this is my favorite sakura treat I’ve tried, if only for how it looks!

This is where my quest for the sakura flavor ends.  I do believe I was successful, as I did find out what the flavor actually is.  Unfortunately, I still don’t know how to describe it that well.  Depending on the product, it can be somewhat sour and savory, but usually sweet and subtly floral.  I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of it, mostly because of the sweetness, but it’s definitely worth a try!  If you get the chance to try it, I recommend going for the traditional sakura mochi.  The products that were seasonal specials were mostly underwhelming, or not as good as the original.

Have you tried any of the items I’ve mentioned here?  Are there products I missed that you think everyone should try?  Share your ideas in the comments below!