Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

-– title: “Japan Sakura Honey (桜蜜)” slug: “japan-sakura-honey” content_type: “monofloral_honey_regional” content_stage: “complete” last_reviewed: “2026-04-06” country_name: “Japan” region_name: “Kinki and Tokai” debug: “no” structure: “yes” menu_weight: ""

native_language_name: “桜蜜” discovery_language: “Japanese”

botanical_name: “Cerasus x yedoensis – ソメイヨシノ (Somei Yoshino, Yoshino cherry). Species rarely declared on commercial labels; see forage_origin.” botanical_family: “Rosaceae”

summary: | One week of bloom, winter-minimum colonies. Japan’s phantom honey – structurally rare for the same reason the blossom is brief. Two national competition champions in three years.

introduction: |

Photo: Uberlemur at the English Wikipedia / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Yoshino_Sakura_Tidal_Basin_DC.jpg (Wikimedia Commons) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Japan Sakura Honey Blossom x -- ソメイヨシノ (Somei Yoshino, Yoshino cherry)

Sakura

Every spring, Japan watches the weather forecast. Not for rain – for cherry blossoms. The cherry blossom front (桜前線, sakura zensen) moves north from Kyushu through Hokkaido and is announced on the evening news alongside temperature forecasts. When it reaches your city, you go outside. Everyone does. Flower viewing (花見, hanami) has been practiced in Japan for over a millennium. The Edo period brought it from the aristocracy to the streets. Now it fills every park, riverbank, and castle ground in the country for one week each spring – under trees that are in full bloom for approximately seven days and nothing close to it for the other fifty-one weeks of the year.

Japan Mikan Honey (みかん蜜)

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Ten days of bloom per year from Wakayama and Ehime citrus orchards. Light, clean citrus fragrance, soft sweetness. Phantom honey – same phrase used for sakura. Declining as orchards decline.

Soyogo Honey (ソヨゴ蜂蜜)

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June honey from eastern Gifu’s satoyama forest. Soyogo – a Japanese holly with no commercial equivalent outside Japan. Deep orange, herbal-fresh, full-bodied.

Kinki and Tokai on HoneyTraveler (Staging)

Japan Mikan Honey (みかん蜜)

Soyogo Honey (ソヨゴ蜂蜜)