cherry blossom flavor

[addicted2pocky]

I really love all the special cherry blossom flavored goodies you can get in Japan around this time of year. I have tried sakura bread, ice cream,cookies, and potato chips even. And I just recently found out that they have a cherry blossom cake at starbucks now Anyway, I was wondering how they get that special cherry blossom flavor. I was hoping to make one of these goodies at home. Does any one have a recipe?

 

[nice gaijin]

After everyone is done viewing the blossoming trees and the flowers have fallen to the ground, they drive around the parks and streets with a special street sweeper that gathers up all of the blossoms. They then dump them into a large centrifuge that spins at high velocity to separate the solid flower from the flavoring. The result is an extract that would permanently stain your tongue light pink. They then dilute it once to a standard strength, bottle it and distribute it to wholesalers and manufacturers.

Of course, none of this is serious. Cherry blossom flavor is probably artificially made, though I'm unsure of where you can get it as an extract.

 

[epigene]

Sakura flavor for ice cream and cakes does not come from the blossom but from the leaf. Also, it comes only from a single cherry variety called O-shima-zakura and not the Somei Yoshino that people typicaly look forward to seeing in spring to have hanami parties and picnics.

This leaf has a special fragrance that is enhanced by salting and has been used in traditional Japanese sweets such as "Sakura-mochi." A variation called "Domyo-ji" is shown at right.


Regarding extract, I've never seen one before--my guess is that the fragrance is volatile and cannot be preserved in an extract. If there's any, I bet it's artificial...

 

[lonesoullost3]

Sakura flavor for ice cream and cakes does not come from the blossom but from the leaf. Also, it comes only from a single cherry variety called O-shima-zakura and not the Somei Yoshino that people typicaly look forward to seeing in spring to have hanami parties and picnics.
This leaf has a special fragrance that is enhanced by salting and has been used in traditional Japanese sweets such as "Sakura-mochi." A variation called "Domyo-ji" is shown at right.
Regarding extract, I've never seen one before--my guess is that the fragrance is volatile and cannot be preserved in an extract. If there's any, I bet it's artificial...

Thanks for the interesting information epigene!