Updated November 7, 2024

Japan is known for their spring season. What makes the spring season so special in Japan you may ask? Well it has got to be the cherry blossoms! Around late March to early April, beautiful cherry blossoms, also known as sakura in Japanese, bloom turning Japan into beautiful shades of pink. It really is a huge deal in Japan and the cherry blossoms are celebrated completely. Many groups of people, friends and families alike, go out to see the blooms and go "hanami" in the parks. Because the bloom time is so short, and the sakura season is so short-lived, locals take full advantage of going to see the trees. The season is also very popular with tourists and foreginers as well, and so March and April subsequently become one of the most popular and crowded times in Japan. 

During this time and the weeks leading up to the blooming time, food companies, restaurants, and stores release their own version of their sakura themed foods. Chocolate brands will come up with cherry blossom flavored chocolates, fast food chains come up with sakura flavored ice cream, and traditional confectionaries release their own sakura flavored sweets. To celebrate the upcoming spring cherry blossom season, here is a list of some of these delicious and surprsingly fragrant sakura treats:

Sanshoku dango

Sanshoku dango, also known as hanami dango, are an indispensable snack during this season. The order of the three colored dumplings is said to represent the order in which cherry blossoms bloom. The pink color represents cherry buds, the white represents cherry blossoms in full bloom, and the green represents cherry leaves after they have fallen.

Sakura Mochi

Sakura Mochi is a sweet, rice cake known as mochi that is traditionally eaten in the spring time. The mochi itself is almost always pink and has a red bean filling within it. It is then wrapped with a cherry blossom leaf giving it a faint aroma that makes the mochi so delicious. These sakura mochi treats can be found in many traditional confectionary shops around spring, as well as grocery stores in Japan.

Sakura Soft-serve

A more commonly found dessert is the sakura flavored soft-serve. It's often sold during the major hanami locations during the cherry blossom season. It's also reported by people that they found many vendors of sakura soft-serve is Kyoto and Ishikawa. The cute swirls of delicate pink are just as appealing to the eye as they are to the taste buds.

Sakura Yokan

Sakura Yokan is the perfect blend of a traditional snack that has been perfectly combined with the delicate sakura flavor. Yokan is a bean jelly sweet, that has a gelatinous look to it. It is made from white kidney beans and agar, and it sometimes also comes with cherry leaves and petals actually mixed into the jelly.

Sakura Tea

Sakura Tea is a delicious sakura flavored item that is enjoyed. It is exactly what it sounds like. A comforting cherry blossom tea that most commonly has a mild salty flavor. There are many variations on the sakura-tea, that can also be bought year-round, including sakura and strawberry tea. Why not celebrate Japan's most beautiful season with a nice sakura tea?

Sakura Sake

Sakura Sake is another cherry blossom flavored beverage that can be enjoyed. The sake is made from sakura and has the aroma of the delicious flavor infused into the drink. For sake lovers, this might just be the drink to try!

Sakura Cheese

This one is a bit harder to find and not as common as others listed here, but this just goes to show you can make almost everything sakura flavored! Sakura cheese is more commonly found in Hokkaido than anywhere, and it is a sakura flavored soft cheese. The cheese is usually white and creamy, and sometimes comes garnished with a pickled cherry blossom flower. 

Traveling to Japan in the spring is amazing. Not only is is beautiful weather, but the cherry blossoms make it an absolutely gorgeous time. Even if you miss the sakura blooms, enjoying some delcious and pretty sakura treats almost makes up for it.