Sakura cheese

Sakura cheese Sakura Chīzu (桜チーズ, literally "Sakura (Cherry Blossom) Cheese")) is a soft cheese created in Hokkaidō, Japan. This cheese is a creamy white, and is flavored with mountain cherry leaves, and accented with pickled cherry blossom flowers; 'Sakura' means "cherry blossom" in Japanese, and is recognized as a symbol of Japan and Japanese culture.

It is the first widely acclaimed Japanese cheese, as the vast majority of cheeses in general were a European/Mediterranean phenomenon, until it spread out to the rest of the world during the days of European exploration. It has the rare distinction of winning a "gold medal" at the Mountain Cheese Olympics in Appenzell, Switzerland, which normally favors Swiss, Italian, or French cheeses almost exclusively for awards. The medal was in the "soft cheese" category.