Kyoto Obubu Tea Plantations’ Sakura Tea is made with salt-pickled cherry blossoms (the kanzan variety) by their partner in Odawara, Kanagawa. The taste that results from the salt-pickling of the blossoms is a flavor standard in Japan for drinking as tea. However, the salted cherry blossoms are quite flexible as well, and taste great with Japanese sake, mixed with rice (to make sakura rice), cookies, and cakes! We also highly recommend adding them to sencha or genmaicha tea for that uniquely Japanese spring flavor.
The flavor of these sakura “cherry” blossoms (being the blossoms and not the fruit) is quite different from the cherry fruit flavor so common in Western sweets (as well as many “Japanese cherry green teas” where the “cherry” is actually cherry fruit flavoring). In Japan though, you’ll find sakura-flavored Kit Kats, sakura-flavored lattes at Starbucks, as well as traditional Japanese sweets. If you’ve never had sakura-flavored tea before, be prepared for a delicious and truly Japanese experience!!