Cherry blossoms have been blooming all over the city for at least a fortnight, after being forestalled just a bit by our late-season April freeze. So right now is your last chance to see New York’s sidewalks carpeted with petals, and better yet, to smell the fragrance of the Japanese sakura/zakura trees that dot Midtown from Bryant Park north into Central Park. This is also your last chance to grab one of the most unusual souvenirs of the season that you are likely to find in NYC: a Japanese cherry blossom dessert (wagashi) called Yoshinozakura. These gelled pastries are made from an arrowroot matrix, meaning that they are gelatin-free and therefore vegetarian friendly. The arrowroot gel is boiled with sugar, cherry blossoms, glutinous rice, and essence of cherry blossoms, and poured into a wide, inch-high sheet that is then cut into cubes and wrapped for sale. The packaging has to be among the most elegant we have ever seen on a snack, with its petal-shaped tissue paper label and chic pink palette.

Then again, at $4.00 per piece, a stylish wrapper is de rigeur, as is excellent flavor. However, before you purchase yoshinozakura for more than just decoration, you should know that when they are boiled or cooked, cherry blossoms lose nearly all of their floral scent and flavor and become more round and mellow tasting, almost like a cross between a blackberry and a prune. If you know this before you take your first bite of a slick, slightly sticky yoshinozakura, you will not be disappointed.

Not suprisingly, there is only one shop in NYC that carries these unique confections: Minamoto Kitchoan, a high-end Japanese dessert specialty store that sells–and makes–exquisitely packaged traditional-style wagashi, and where above all else, presentation counts. This is not the place to go for a cream puff or a box of Collon cookies, but it is the ideal spot to pick up a gift to bring along to a swanky dinner party. When we talked with the staff at Minamoto Kitchoan, they told us that the shop has enough yoshinozakura in stock to last approximately another two weeks. Once purchased, these sweets last about a month, as long as they are kept cool. But we recommend giving and eating yoshinozakura right now, preferably outdoors, while there are still blossoms on the trees, so that you can capture the essence of the Spring with every single one of your senses at once.

Minamoto Kitchoan, 608 Fifth Avenue (at 49th Street), 212-489-3747.