Cherry blossom
Prunus serrulata · Edible flower
Top 10 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 freshEveryday bestThe 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.
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