Cherry blossom

Prunus serrulata · Edible flower

40 pairings

Cherry blossom (sakura) is the springtime flower of ornamental cherry trees in the genus Prunus — eaten in Japan after being salt-pickled into sakurazuke, which gives confections, rice and tea a soft floral-almond aroma and a gentle saline tang.

Picking a good onedrag

Rose-pink, whole heads, almond-sweetBrown, shattered, musty in the salt

Jar freshThe standard pack: soak the salt out, then rice, sweets and tea. Only blossom sold as food. A park, avenue, street or roadside tree, a florist's branch or a garden-centre plant is grown to be looked at, and may carry sprays no food crop is allowed - some taken up through the roots into the whole plant, so no amount of rinsing removes them.Everyday best

Where it's fromAn edible-flower grower's own salted pack

Colour of the cureRose fading to tan at the petal edges

The flower headHeads whole, a few loose petals in the pack

Salt and packMoist with the cure but still separating

Smell at the packFaint almond, mostly salt and plum vinegar

What to look for, from rose-pink, whole heads, almond-sweet to brown, shattered, musty in the salt.

Preparing