During the spring, sakura-flavored sweets reign supreme in Japan as a way of celebrating the season of blooming cherry blossoms. For McDonald's, that usually means opening up their dessert menu to a fan favorite like the sakura McFlurry, but this year McDonald's will be turning to traditional Japanese sweets for inspiration with the release of their new Sakuramochi Pie.

The new pie is a recreation of sakuramochi, a traditional Japanese confection and popular way of enjoying mochi during the spring. The dish serves up a sweeter and pink (sakura-inspired) mochi rice cake filled with red bean paste and wrapped in an actual pickled cherry blossom leaf.

Here's an example of sakuramochi.

The Sakuramochi Pie consists of sakura flavored soft mochi, made with pickled cherry blossoms to provide an authentic sakuramochi flavor, and slightly sweetened red bean paste, all encased in a crunchy sakura-flavored pie that completes the dessert's prized mix of crunchy and chewy cherry blossom flavor.

The pie's package is also modeled after the cherry blossom-wrapped sakuramochi.

The new Sakuramochi Pie will be available at McDonald's locations throughout Japan from March 23rd to the middle of April (priced at 150 yen).


By - grape Japan editorial staff.