Sakura Leaf Tea
Also known as: Cherry Leaf Tea
Sakura leaf tea is an herbal infusion made from the leaves of Japanese flowering cherry trees rather than from the tea plant. The leaves are dried, and often salt-cured first, then steeped on their own or blended with green tea. Because no Camellia sinensis is involved in the plain form, the infusion is naturally caffeine-free.
Documented in
- Sakura Leaf Tea by April Drinks
Listed in its declared ingredients as “Sakura Leaf Tea”.
Usage in beverages
The leaves are steeped as a standalone caffeine-free tisane, served hot or chilled. They are also blended with sencha and other green teas for seasonal spring teas, and paired in the cup with salted cherry blossoms. Infusions and syrups made from the leaves flavor modern drinks such as cherry-blossom lattes, sodas, and alcohol-free spring cocktails.
In depth
The cherry tree in early Japanese drinking culture
Long before cherry leaves were steeped on their own, the sakura tree was central to Japanese celebrations involving drink. Flower viewing began among Nara-period elites, who at first admired plum blossoms in imitation of Chinese poetry-and-wine gatherings. By the Heian period the cherry had become the flower of choice. Offerings made to the spirits believed to dwell in the trees were later shared with sake, and the imperial court held banquets beneath the blossoming branches. From the court the custom spread to the samurai class and, by the Edo period, to townspeople. Throughout this history the cherry tree was the setting and the symbol rather than an ingredient in the cup. That symbolism later gave cherry-flavored infusions their seasonal meaning.[1]
Edo-period curing of cherry leaves
The practice of preserving cherry leaves in salt became firmly established in Edo-period Japan. Its best-known early use was in sakuramochi, a sweet rice cake wrapped in a cured leaf. Tradition credits the sweet to a teahouse beside a temple in the Mukojima district of Edo in the early eighteenth century, where it was sold to visitors and to crowds viewing the cherry trees along the Sumida River. Curing does more than preserve the leaf. As it softens, the leaf develops the sweet, almond-like perfume now thought of as the essential cherry scent. Leaves of the Oshima cherry, grown especially around Matsuzaki in Shizuoka, became the standard material. The sweets were eaten alongside cups of tea, which closely linked the cured leaf's fragrance with Japanese teahouse refreshment.[2]
Sakurayu and the salted-cherry infusion tradition
The closest traditional relative of sakura leaf tea is sakurayu, also called sakura-cha. It is made by dropping a few salt-and-plum-vinegar-pickled cherry blossoms into hot water, where the petals open and float. The resulting drink is pale, delicate, slightly salty, and faintly sweet. It is customarily offered at weddings and engagement meetings instead of green tea, because an idiom about clouding tea suggests evasiveness, while the clear blossom infusion signifies a fresh beginning. Cured cherry leaves draw on the same salting technique and the same seasonal symbolism. They are sometimes added to blossom infusions or sold alongside them to deepen the fragrance, extending this celebratory, caffeine-free style of cherry drink.[3]
Spring blends with Japanese green tea
In modern Japan, dried cherry leaf is widely used to scent green tea for the spring season. Sencha is Japan's everyday steamed green tea, with a grassy, slightly vegetal character. Blending it with shredded cherry leaf produces a seasonal tea in which the leaf's soft, sweet aroma rounds out the tea's freshness. These blends are typically offered around the cherry-blossom season, often in the same weeks that the year's first new-crop sencha appears. Because the cherry leaf contributes fragrance rather than caffeine, it can also be steeped without tea leaves at all. The plain tisane suits evening drinking and those avoiding stimulants.[4]
A pairing tea for hanami and spring sweets
Sakura leaf tea also serves as a companion drink at spring gatherings. Hanami picnics have always centered on food and drink, as the proverb preferring dumplings to flowers wryly acknowledges. Alongside the sake commonly drunk at these parties, hot or chilled tea is served with dango, sakuramochi, and other seasonal sweets. A cherry-leaf infusion echoes the scent of leaf-wrapped confections. This makes it a natural non-alcoholic choice for flower viewing, school and workplace welcome parties held under the blossoms, and tea served in confectionery shops during the season.[1]
Contemporary and international uses
In recent decades the cherry-leaf flavor has moved beyond traditional tea. Cafés in Japan and abroad steep the leaves, or use syrups and extracts drawn from them, to make pink-tinged cherry-blossom lattes, sparkling sodas, iced teas, and alcohol-free spring cocktails, often garnished with a salted blossom. The spread of hanami-style festivals to North America, Europe, and elsewhere in Asia has made cherry-themed spring drinks a familiar seasonal offering far from Japan. At its simplest, though, sakura leaf tea remains a quiet herbal infusion: a few dried leaves in hot water, valued for its delicate perfume and its association with the brief cherry season.[1]