The Best Strawberries in the World!

I LOVE fruits. especially berries, cherries, and strawberries. They are amongst the little things in life that make me happy 🙂

Originally from a tropical country like Thailand, these fruits are typically not grown locally, and they are crazy expensive. What’s not to like about unattainable fruits! So every time I travel abroad to cold climate countries, that’s one of the things I look forward to – eating berries and cherries.

Natural berries in Somerset, 15 minutes from Bath, UK.

Northern Thailand does grow strawberries, but the taste is mostly tart and doesn’t have that juicy sweetness. So the best way to have it, for the locals, is with พริกเกลือ (prik-gleu,) a blend of sugar, salt, and chili, to bring out the taste and cut into the sourness.

Local strawberries taste sour and lack the sweetness.

Before going to the best strawberries in the world, I’m giving the best value strawberries prize, in terms of taste vs. price, to the berries in the UK. They were sweet and tart, and for 2 packs for 3 pounds, you can’t go wrong.

2 for 3 pounds, what a deal!

I compare the taste and cost to other places I have eaten strawberries from, like Paris, New York, Michigan, Florida, and of course Thailand.

About $4.50 in Michigan; mostly tart with a hint of sweetness.

About $5 from NYC. Mostly tart but then it wasn't ripe yet.

This was about 8 euros in Paris. Hmm...think I got ripped off.

The best tasting strawberries I have ever tasted were from..... Japan! Of course the time that I visited helped, because it was in late March – early April and the strawberries in Japan taste the best and sweetest in the winter time. See here: http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/attractions/dining/food/jfood_11.html It also helped elevate the strawberries eating experience when I was watching Mt. Fuji, or while I was admiring the blooming cherry blossoms 🙂

A pack like this cost about 400-500 yen.

I would love to visit strawberries farm in Japan and pick and eat all the fresh strawberries to my heart’s desire. However, the strawberries farms are usually quite far away, and considering the commuting/ tour cost, and around 1,500 yen for the admission fee, I prefer to just get them from local supermarkets as I travel places. If you would love to visit the farms, here’s a good site for more information http://www.yokoso-japan.jp/en/feature04.html

I have yet to try strawberries from Korea, which I have heard are pretty good and refreshingly sweet too. Guess I will wait to buy from local gourmets when they are on promotions.

Note that different seasons provide different taste, everyone’s preference is different, and where I buy them does not mean the strawberries were grown there.

Adding to my strawberries collection, Korean strawberries! The taste is sweet, but the sweetness is more diluted and the taste and texture is not as scrumptious comparing to the Japanese strawberries. Could just be this breed or time of year though, as I am sure there are other more delicious ones.

Fast forward to 2021, I now live in Florida and the ones I buy from the supermarket are mostly tart or more bland than sweet. We have just made a trip to a strawberry farm and picked them out fresh, and boy, they were delicious!

We went to a You-pick strawberry farm in Central Florida, called Pappy's Patch, and it costs only about $3 per pound. They were so good that I plan to make a trip out there every year now with my family. My son loved the experience so much he yelled out, "These strawberries taste like dreamland!" We did go to pick the strawberries late in the season so it might have affected the taste. Compared to the strawberries I had in Japan, they are still the reigning champion so far.

#berrieslovers #beststrawberries #Ilovestrawberries #beststrawberriesintheworld