After a particularly tough winter, it’s finally the D.C. region’s favorite time of the year – Cherry blossom season! And nothing helps more with braving those Tidal Basin crowds than a sweet treat.
For this week’s Get Out There, our weekly series exploring the Washington, D.C., region, WAMU’s Matt Blitz gives us a taste of local cherry blossom-inspired treats.
Cupcakes, donuts, popsicles, ice cream, puff pastries, and smoothies are all on the menu. If you love cherry blossoms and have a sweet tooth, it’s the best time of the year.
Every spring, it sure seems like more and more area bakeries and restaurants are leaning in hard on everyone’s favorite pink flower. We spoke with several bakery owners and pastry chefs, who all said that their cherry blossom seasonal items are their top-selling treats this time of the year, and they often sell out.
“There have been some thoughts, especially when it’s slow in the middle of winter, we’re like, ‘That cherry blossom doughnut can’t come soon enough,’” said Elliot Spaisman, co-owner of Astro Doughnuts and Fried Chicken. The shop has locations in both Arlington and D.C. and has been making its cherry blossom doughnut seasonally for more than a decade.
Montgomery County native Spaisman said they started making them at their original location near Metro Center as edible keepsakes for tourists and locals alike visiting the blossoms.
Unsurprisingly, most bakeries focus on cherry rather than blossom in their flavors.
Good Company Doughnuts & Cafe owners (and siblings) Charles Kachadoorian and Kate Murphy explained that most customers prefer the cherry flavor to a floral one. However, that adds other complications.
“It kind of becomes… almost the goal to make cherry stuff that tastes like cherry and not medicine, if you’re like us bakers, I think. It’s a fine line,” Murphy says, who is also the shop’s pastry chef.
Good Company Doughnut offers several cherry blossom-themed snacks, including a vegan “cherry bomb” with a tart cherry glaze and Bavarian cream.
Other places to grab a cherry blossom sweet treat include:
- 2fifty BBQ’s cherry blossom cakesicle, a work of art just as much as it is a dessert.
- Toby’s Handmade Ice Cream in Arlington is serving up a cherry blossom sorbet.
- Fast-casual Mexican restaurant Taquería Xochi has a cherry blossom pink paleta at its locations in D.C. and Virginia.
- Georgetown Cupcake is baking its popular cherry blossom-flavored cherry cheesecake and white chocolate cherry cupcakes… if you have a stomach for standing in a long line.
- South Block, which opened its first location on the George Washington University campus in 2006, is blending a cherry blossom smoothie made with whole dark cherries.
- French bakery Un Je Ne Sais Quio near Dupont Circle is freshly baking three different kinds of cherry blossom pastries.
The post Get Out There: Cherry blossom treats appeared first on WAMU.
Published Date : 2026-03-26 22:34:00
Source : wamu.org
