White Strawberries in Japan

Really interesting video forwarded to me by colleague Steven Koike this morning concerning a largish "white strawberry" grown in Japan.  Cultivated in Karatsu in the south, these berries fetch an eye popping equivalent of 40 bucks a tray.  That said, the grower, Teshima Yasuhito, is only harvesting 10% of the fruit since expected grade is very, very high.

Sorry, can't embed this video, so you have to follow the link, the video is very high quality and worth the watch.

https://vimeo.com/220367506

Small quibble, but an important one since it concerns the translation of an aspect of the fruit's flavor.  The grower is made to claim that in a way the flavor is "mysterious" but that is not what exactly he says.  He says it is "fushigi" (???) which does not translate to "mysterious".  Consider that the title "Alice in Wonderland" translates to "Fushigi no kuni no Alice" (?????????) we can deduce that he is actually saying it is a "wonder" or maybe even "amazing".

At any rate, sure would like to try one to make my own assessment of this white strawberry, and maybe someday I will.

6/15/2017 Reader and strawberry grower Thomas Flewell adds the following comment concerning white strawberries and strawberries in Asia in general:

"Hi Mark: I have sampled several of the Japanese strawberry varieties at a greenhouse operated by my client in central China. The flavors are all distinctive and very different to the taste expected from strawberries in the US. Among those I  tasted was a white strawberry from Japan. Not sure it was the same one mentioned in your blog. The US and the Asian market criteria for what makes a good strawberry are very different to one another - literally worlds apart."

Thanks Steve for the forward!

H/T Thom Flewell, thank you.

XX

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