From donuts to domyoji, 7-Eleven shows it knows how to do cherry blossom desserts.

Part of what makes cherry blossom season so awesome in Japan is that you can be as hardcore or laid-back about it as you want, and it’s enjoyable either way. If you feel up to it, you can make the trip to one of the country’s major travel destination-class cherry blossom viewing venues, but there’s also a special beauty to be found just by casually strolling through local neighborhoods and spotting a tree you’ve been walking by all year that has now suddenly burst into pink.

That applies to sakura sweets, too. Sure, fancy cafes add cherry blossom desserts to their menus in spring, but there are also amazing sakura treats being whipped up at humbler stores that don’t skimp on flavor or aesthetics.

Case in point: all of the beautiful sakura sweets here are from none other than 7-Eleven Japan. Starting with what’s pictured above, that’s the Sakura Moko, a cream puff filled with sakura sweet bean paste and whipped cream. Priced at 200 yen (US$1.35), it’s not only impulse buy-friendly, it also leaves us with plenty of room in our budget to pick up a half-dozen or so of the other members of the tempting 7-Eleven sakura lineup.

Sticking with anko (sweet bean paste), usually dorayaki are a pair of pancake-like cakes with a thin anko filling. The Sakura An Cream Dorayaki (180 yen), though, has a super-thick stack of sakura cream mixed with white anko plus whipped cream with bits of sweet beans. It looks like you might need to press the top and bottom cakes together to take a bite, which could create a bit of a mess if you’re not careful, but that’s a risk we’re prepared to take.

Indecisive types, or individuals with such cultured sensibilities that they can appreciate a wide range of desserts, will want to check out the Spring Sakura Parfait (300 yen). The first thing that goes into the cup is a foundation of sakura gelatin, which gets topped by sakura mousse and anko. On top are dollops of whipped cream and domyoji, (a glutinous rice confectionary also known as Kansai-style sakura mochi), arranged in the shape of a cherry blossom, with an actual salt-preserved sakura flower on top.

Speaking of domyoji-style sakura mochi, you can get them by themselves in their orthodox form for 168 yen.

If you’d prefer a little more consistency throughout your cup-contained dessert, there’s the Sakura Milk Purin (250 yen), which infuses Japanese-style creamy custard pudding with the slightly salty sweet sakura flavor and dresses it up with sakura whipped cream and sakura sauce, with some white chocolate drizzled atop as a finishing touch.

Arguably the least elegant-appearing of the bunch is the Sakura Whipped Cream with Sakura Chiffon Cake (390 yen), which looks like something we might have made out of leftover dessert bits when we were kids. However, even as adults we still want to eat it.

There is a more mature-looking alternative in the Sakura Chiffon Whipped Cream Sandwich (178 yen), as 7-Eleven calls this cake…

…and rounding off the sakura sweets selection is Sakura Berry Old-Fashioned donut (148 yen), with a sakura berry glaze and flakes of white chocolate arranged to bring to mind cherry blossom petals fluttering on the wind.

The donuts and Sakura Shiffon Whipped Cream Sandwich won’t be making their debuts until March 18, but everything else is on sale now.

Source, images: PR Times
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