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  • It all started when I was on my way to a sakura / cherry blossom event.

  • I was in Shibuya and you can't go empty handed to a hanami party so in the

  • basement of the station is a place called Tokyu department store and they

  • have a place called Food Show which has some of the most amazing fruits in all

  • of Japan. Rare and super expensive.

  • And then I saw this.

  • That's it right in the center.

  • the white strawberry. I mean is it unripe?

  • Painted? Dyed? Bleached? What? They had it in a box and here in a case almost like

  • jewelry. Just one white strawberry in a pack

  • you could smell it standing a couple meters away. A big price tag for a

  • strawberry. But hey, you only live once, right?

  • and it's pretty big. That's right the mother of all strawberries. Technically

  • I'm incorrect. The mother of all strawberries would be the BIJIN HIME

  • or beautiful princess strawberry at Okuda farm in Gifu Prefecture. It's

  • big and beautiful. Up to 100 grams. 1 strawberry can cost fifty thousand yen so

  • who buys a $500 strawberry? It's for gifts of course, to the one you love this

  • is the 500 yen coin next to a typical large strawberry. And here is the BIJIN HIME. Most

  • impressive. Maybe even better than a diamond ring. What makes the Japanese

  • strawberry so delicious? I traveled across the river from Tokyo to

  • neighboring Ichikawa city in Chiba Prefecture to find some answers at OTA

  • Strawberry Farm established in 1999

  • I asked Ota-san why Japanese strawberries were so sweet.

  • It starts with winter.

  • In winter, it takes a long time for it to get ripe, to get red

  • so over more time, it gets redder.

  • and much sweeter.

  • Once it gets to March, it gets much warmer.

  • That speeds up ripening more quickly.

  • That means it's not as sweet (as in the winter).

  • Temperature control is important to sweetness. The best season from January

  • to March. I learned a lot from Ota-san.

  • He grows four varieties of strawberries, each one a different size and shape. Japan

  • has a love affair with strawberries. The names reflect that. Tochi Otome.

  • Beni Hoppe. Hatsukoi no Kaori. All romantic names. It's just beautiful, isn't it?

  • That's the Japanese strawberry. Japanese strawberries are typically softer and

  • juicier than other strawberries. This makes it hard to export and anyway, there

  • are a lot of hungry strawberry eaters here in Japan. According to the Japanese

  • National Tourist Organization JNTO, Japan is the largest producer and

  • consumer of dessert strawberries in the world. You can see why this is a paradise

  • for sweet tooth strawberry lovers. It even has a place in the sandwich line.

  • The strawberry custard or cream sandwiches is a hit. Perfect with coffee

  • or a glass of champagne.

  • Back to the white strawberry. Meet Teshima-san in Saga prefecture, the only one

  • who grows the Shiroi Houseki variety of White strawberry. I talked to

  • him by telephone and he told me that his farm has about 50 varieties of white

  • strawberries. They are made by crossbreeding and strict sunlight control in his

  • greenhouse. Strawberries are a little bit like people. If you get a lot of sunlight

  • you turn brown. Strawberries turn red.

  • the SHIROI HOUSEKI is rare because only ten percent stay wide after sun

  • exposure, and those are the ones that are prized.

  • This is a pinebarry. It's one variety of white strawberry

  • popular in Europe these days

  • this is the SHOROI HOUSEKI or white jewel of saga prefecture. It's called this because

  • it resembles a precious stone with a little blush and it's extremely rare to

  • find. The original mainstream Japanese white strawberry is the Hatsukoi no Kaori

  • or Scent of First Love. The SHIROI HOUSEKI on the other hand is a

  • strawberry that was crossbred with very limited sun exposure in the greenhouse

  • If you didn't see the sun, often you'd probably be pale too! Its white because it

  • contains less ANTHOCYANIN which is what gives strawberries its red color. As you

  • can see, both the white but the pineberry is much smaller. The SHOROI HOUSEKI

  • is larger, softer and juicer. There are many kinds of white

  • strawberries in Japan. Yuki Usagi. Sakura Ichigo. Tenshi no Mi. They're all

  • crossbred man-made varieties of the strawberry with new versions popping up

  • every year

  • mind you these are not genetically modified but crossbred there's a

  • difference. Is the SHIROI HOUSEKI a Pineberry? I'd say no.

  • I see it as a Sleeping Beauty. Cinderella inside one glass slipper. She's not

  • entirely white. That blush! It's berry seductive.

  • Soft skin.

  • And those dimples.

  • Eh, hairy dimples aren't my thing, but I could look past it with a glass of champagne.

  • Her sisters are marked as white strawberries but they're more like

  • pink. You can see why these costs only 480 yen. Not cheap

  • but they aren't exactly going to win a beauty pageant. The normal red

  • strawberries look good, too. But come on!

  • We all dream of this one. Only 1080 yen and she's yours.

  • so for reference I have a regular sized strawberry here and the white strawberry.

  • And now -- the SHIROI HOUSEKI.

  • They both smell really sweet -- but this one has more of a sugary smell

  • to it. Okay, for reference I'm going to try the normal strawberry first

  • Sweet. Strawberry-ry.

  • The white SHIROI HOUSEKI. Pineapple in the first two seconds. Very pleasant.

  • Inside the SHIROI HOUSEKI white strawberry is -- white

  • no surprise there. Both strawberries were delicious and offered a different

  • taste experience. So now you have to ask yourself, was it worth it?

  • No.

  • No it wasn't.

  • But, I think you have to try it because just curiosity gets the better of you when

  • you see something that's outrageously priced and to be honest 1080 yen is not

  • that much to try for an experiment. I mean a melon would cost 25,000 yen which

  • is about $220. Well that's for a pair of muskmelon but still, that's a lot you

  • could pay even more. But this is so Japanese because what they've done is

  • taken something like the everyday strawberry and they've made it better

  • bigger -- white! And that's pretty cool.

  • A small price to pay for a berry delicious adventure and Japan.

It all started when I was on my way to a sakura / cherry blossom event.

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日本のホワイトストロベリー。贅沢フルーツのアンボックス&アドベンチャー★ONLY IN JAPAN (Japan's White Strawberry: Luxury Fruit Unboxing & Adventure ★ ONLY in JAPAN)

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    林宜悉 に公開 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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