White Jewel Strawberry (Shirou Houseki)

White jewel strawberries are known in Japan as the Shirou Houseki variety, or ‘White Jewel‘. They have a smooth white colour, with the same reddish seeds as a normal strawberry, and are several times larger than the average strawberry.

They are specially cross-bred and grown in dark conditions to reduce the red colour of a normal strawberry. The white colour comes from the absence of anthocyanin, a naturally-occurring pigment that gives fruits their red, purple or blue colour. Some of them will start to take on their natural red colour when exposed to sunlight, so the rarest of the White Jewels are the ones that retain their white colour.

While the white colour might make them seem sour or tasteless (like the base of a normal strawberry), they are in fact very sweet. The taste of a white strawberry is sweet like a candy, with a hint of pineapple.