As I’m currently teaching at a high school, I already have plenty of teenagers trying to do things like change the due dates of their assignmentsmess in order to mess with my brain, thank you very much. The last thing I need is for my fruit to try to do the same…so imagine my frustration when I learned that there’s a place in Japan where you can buy strawberries pretending to be peaches (or is it the other way around!?)!
The peach-flavored ninjaberries, as I’d prefer to call them, appear from all angles to be your typical sweet strawberries, save for two minor distinctions–their ginormous size and slightly different color palette.
Our Japanese correspondent Yoshio received the masquerading fruit known as toukun ichigo (written with the characters 桃薫 for “peach aroma;” ichigo means “strawberry”) as a gift on Valentine’s Day. Upon further investigation, he discovered that the strange fruit is being sold in the supermarket basement level of the classy Isetan Department Store in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district for 1,296 yen (US$10.90) each.
Taste-testing the strawberry-peach hybrid proved to be an experience in itself. Yoshio immediately noticed the fruit’s peachy aroma when he took it out of the box. Also, the outside was lighter in color than a typically ripe red strawberry, and the inside was distinctively white. When he finally bit into it, he had to suppress a laugh. “It’s totally a peach!” he remarked. But a few seconds later, his face twisted into confusion. “Wait-just what is this??” he continued. Apparently, the peach flavor hits you strongly at first, but the strawberry flavor takes a few moments to kick in. Furthermore, the texture of the fruit is undeniably that of a strawberry’s.
We’ll leave Yoshio in his confused state of mind to mull it over a bit more, but in the meantime, take a look at some pictures!
▼ We knew that fruit in Japan tends to be extremely expensive (and high quality), but this takes it to a whole new level!
We even have a video of Yoshio’s taste test for your viewing and taste buds’ pleasure!
So what’s the bottom line? The price is a bit steep, but if you don’t mind shelling out the extra yen for this bizarre lovechild of fruits, it certainly makes for a sweet and delicious snack!
Original article by Yoshio
All images © RocketNews24