While not as intentional as Yan’s quest of related products, I did manage to try out a few Sakura flavored treats this Spring too. Though I had known full well how unpleasant I found the aroma, I still had this beautiful image of Kingyoku in the back of my head.

I found these sakura jelly over at the Odawara Mylord. These are pretty commercial variants that were part of a boxed display together with Sakuranbo jelly. The staff were happy to sell them individually when asked though. I gave a couple to Mary and kept the rest to try later.

Unopened.

Not so impressive.

Murky.

The jelly was not nearly as pretty as the ones on flickr. It lacked the clarity and the texture was somewhat mushy. Fortunately, the taste of the sakura petals mixed into the cloudy jelly was mild. It came with packets of syrup to flavor it instead. After the awful Sakura Steamer at Starbucks I was expecting far worse. This wasn’t nearly as bad and the petals gave an interesting texture to the jelly.

Overall, it wasn’t really worth its cost. But it does make for a pretty gift.

This Sakura Anpan is part of another series of sakura related product that I picked up during my conquest for testing out everything sakura-related. Unsurprisingly, the day when I bought my sakura chocolates I also happened to pass by a Japanese bakery offering sakura related breads. I had to get some myself.

After a simple search, 3 different sakura related products were found at the shop. Sakura Anpan, Sakura Pan and Sakura Daifuku. The former 2 are Japanese buns filled with red/mung bean paste and the daifuku is a glutinous rice cake filled with read bean paste.

Sakura Anpan

Sakura pan on the left, sakura anpan on the right.

Sakura anpan.

Sakura anpan with the whole pickled sakura leaf shown.

The sakura anpan is filled with red bean paste (Anko in Japanese).

A closer inspection.

Sakura Pan

Sakura pan.

Same as the sakura anpan, it comes complete with a piece of picked sakura leaf.

Sakura pan instead is filled with mung bean paste.

A closer inspection.

More than a decoration, the picked sakura leaves could be eaten if you desire.

Sakura Daifuku

Sakura Daifuku.

A closer inspection at the daifuku.

Picked sakura flower. Yes they also can be eaten like the sakura leaves.

The insides is also filled with red bean paste.

Since now is the Sakura season, there are plenty of Cherry Blossom related goods floating around the market. Even though I am not a huge fan of Sakura flavored foodstuffs, I still decided to take a look around and see if there were any interesting items that might change my way of thinking. This Sakura chocolate captured my attention for its pretty packaging and I decided to acquire a small box to try it out.

Sakura chocolates. Made by Furansuya.

Ingredients written at the back, with an English translated sticker for reference. 9 dollars for a small box.

It comes in 2 different colors.

6 chocolates for a small packet. At least every single chocolate is pressed into a Sakura shape.

A closer look at the pink colored chocolate. The next natural step is to pop this piece of chocolate into my mouth.

My final verdict of the product: It tasted okay but wasn’t really  something I will go for again. The Sakura-colored chocolate had an intense aroma and taste of Sakura, with gritty bits of leaves inside. The other white-colored chocolate tasted, more like any other white chocolate with only a hint of the Cherry Blossom aroma.

Perhaps such Sakura flavored goods are more intended for the female masses rather than the males, as to me the appeal of Sakura flavor is rather faint. It will still make a pretty looking gift to any girl, who I believe will appreciate the taste more than I do.

The Sakura Chocolates were bought from Nippon-Ya at Ion Orchard, Singapore. The above post features the smallest packet available for sale, they also carry other Sakura flavored items like biscuits and snacks.