Strawberry Varieties
We hope you enjoy comparing the flavors of the different varieties.
The Highland Strawberry, Inawashiro Premium®
If you know, you know.
The new highland strawberry Inawashiro Premium® variety was developed at Shinshu University through selective breeding.
Even among other Kashu strawberries, it is especially sweet.
It has a floral aroma that is followed by a rich and juicy sweetness that fills your mouth.
From its vibrant outside all the way to its core, this strawberry is a beautiful red.
Its use at famous theme parks and high-end hotels make it well known among strawberry fanatics.
Yotsuboshi
Quadruple Collaboration
The name “Yotsuboshi” (Four Stars) has an interesting origin. This strawberry balances the four pillars of sweetness, tartness, aroma, and umami (the Japanese 5th category of taste), making it a “four-star” level product. It was also developed by a collaboration of four agricultural research centers in Mie, Kagawa, Chiba, and Kyushu-Okinawa.
A great scent, red all the way through, incredibly sweet, and abundantly juicy with a mild tartness. The Yotsuboshi is the perfect example of a traditional strawberry.
Pechika Honoka
Unprecedented Fragrance and Sweetness
Pechika Honoka is a summer strawberry variety developed in Hokkaido.
Some are conical, some are monstrous, but their strong sweetness, aroma, and juicy flavor is what makes them unique.
They are pale red in color, and have a soft skin that gives them a pleasant mouthfeel.
The inner flesh is white, but the hollow core is almost nonexistent.
In peak harvest season, a single strawberry can reach weights of over 40-50g.
The ripe, large, red fruits have a fragrance and sweetness unlike any other.
Natsu no Shizuku
Refreshing Tartness and Texture
These strawberries got their name, which rouhgly translates to "drop of summer", from their harvesting season and juiciness.
They boast a refreshing tartness and texture that pairs perfectly with the heat of summer.
The truly beautiful conical shape of this variety comes in sizes in the medium to large side of the spectrum.
Their glossy appearance makes for great photos, especially when paired with condensed milk.
Have even more fun strawberry picking by comparing the stronger tartness of this variety with others.
Japan is home to about 300 varieties of strawberries, which is over half of the varieties in the entire world!
Even now, unique new varieties are being born across Japan.
Some of these varieties even go on to become the representative variety of their respective regions.
Japanese strawberries are also popular overseas, and have recently begun to be exported at higher rates.
The reddest of red, all the way to the leaves
Those that are plumper and slightly darker in color are even sweeter still.
If you find any with a nice shape and uniform color, don’t hesitate to pick them.
What’s the difference between hand-picked strawberries and those at the supermarket? The answer is their ripeness and freshness.
We hope you’ll enjoy the deliciousness of freshly picked strawberries at our farm.
In Japan, strawberries are officially vegetables.
In Japanese, "fruit" (kudamono) refers only to those which grow on woody plants, like trees.
Meanwhile "vegetable" (yasai) includes all fruit and vegetables which grow from herbacious plants.
Since strawberry plants are not woody, this makes them "vegetables" in the Japanese language.
Those bumps on strawberries aren’t seeds. Each bump is actually an individual fruit.
There are seeds inside every one of those little fruits.
A single strawberry is actually a collection of 200 to 300 fruits, and is referred to as an “aggregate fruit”.
The sweet part that we often think is the fruit is a false fruit, which develops from the flower receptacle at the end of the stem.
Strawberries have twice the vitamin C of grapefruits!
They also have a lot of folic acids, a type of vitamin B.
They also have a lot of anthocyanin, a polyphenol and antioxidant, which is good for your eyes and helps to prevent fatigue and stress.
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, (MAFF) website
