In Japan, hanami isn’t just about looking at cherry blossoms. It’s about sitting under the trees with sake, good food, and people you like, letting yourself actually appreciate that spring has finally sprung. Festivals from DC to Vancouver to Torrance, CA to Hirosaki Castle in Japan build entire weeks around the same idea.

The sakura bloom is short, so you need to stop and pay attention to it, and what better way than with a Lychee Blossom Spritz?

Sake, lychee juice, and cherry blossom simple syrup, topped with soda water and a sprig of mint, is the kind of low-effort spring drink you make when, magically, you already have all the ingredients in your kitchen.

It’s also the lightest cocktail in my cherry blossom cocktail series, which makes it a good place to start if you’re new to mixing with cherry blossom syrup.

Why Sake

Most people’s only experience with sake is having it warm at a Japanese restaurant, which is not representative of what sake tastes like cold in a cocktail. Cold sake is clean, lightly sweet, with a gentle rice-forward quality that doesn’t compete with the other ingredients.

It runs around 14 to 16% ABV, lower than most spirits but higher than wine.

Vodka technically works as a sub, but you lose that inherent rice wine flavor sake brings. A neutral spirit adds nothing to the cocktail.

Sake has its own mild flavor that layers with the lychee and cherry blossom, enhancing them rather than cowering in the background.

The Cherry Blossom Syrup

The flavor is floral and delicate, closer to rose water and honey with a faint almond note. It doesn’t taste like cherries. In this drink it adds the sweetness and fragrance that carries through each sip.

You can make your own syrup at home in three different ways using dried cherry blossoms or salt-preserved sakura (my preferred way).

The preserved ones give you a deeper, more complex flavor, but you have to soak and rinse them thoroughly first. Skip the rinse and your syrup will taste like salt water. Grab the full recipe is here.

For store-bought, the Floral Elixir Co. cherry blossom syrup is award-winning and made from real sakura extract with no artificial flavors.

Note: homemade syrup is nearly clear on its own. If you want a pale pink color in the glass, add hibiscus petals or freeze-dried raspberries while it simmers. The syrup recipe covers both options.

Lychee Juice

Fresh lychees are wonderful to eat, but they don’t press cleanly, and the effort isn’t worth it for a two-minute spritz.

If you’re buying canned lychees for the garnish anyway, use the juice straight from the can. It’s lightly sweet and the right flavor already. Look for a brand without added sugar if you can find one, since the cherry blossom syrup is already adding the sweet.

Canned lychee juice is usually in the international foods aisle at a regular grocery store, online or at any Asian market.

Don’t Skip the Mint

Lychee is sweet, and cherry blossom syrup is sweet. Without something to cut that, the drink tips toward dessert cocktail territory.

Mint fixes it (as would a little lemon). You’re only using mint as a garnish, so the flavor is subtle, but even floating above the glass, it adds a little coolness. It’s one of those easy things to skip that you’ll notice when you do.

If you want to push the mint flavor a bit further, drop a few leaves into the glass before adding anything and press them very lightly, just enough to bruise without shredding. It adds a soft herbal background note without turning this into a mojito.

I grow mint year-round specifically for cocktails. If you’re starting a small herb garden, it’s one of the most useful things you can plant, but do NOT plant it in the ground. Keep it in a pot so it doesn’t take over your entire yard.

Glassware

A standard white wine glass is perfect, and you probably already have one. You get enough volume for ice, the drink, and the garnish without everything looking cramped.

If you want to skip the ice in the glass, shake the sake, lychee juice, and cherry blossom syrup together with ice, strain into a chilled coupe glass, and top with cold soda water. It’s a little more concentrated and a little more cocktail-forward.

I keep a full list of glassware in my Amazon shop if you’re building out your home bar.

Mocktail Version

Leave out the sake and keep everything else the same. The lychee juice, cherry blossom syrup, and soda water work well together, although it goes a little flat in the middle without the sake.

A small squeeze of lime helps, or a splash of white grape juice. Both add back some body.

A non-alcoholic gin is another solid option. The botanical notes in NA gin work well with the floral syrup, adding more complexity than just fruit and soda.

Cocktails That Use Cherry Blossom Syrup

The syrup only keeps about a week in the fridge, so it helps to have a few recipes ready. The full list from my cherry blossom series:

• Cherry Blossom Bee’s Knees
• Cherry Blossom Quiet Old Fashioned
• Falling Petals Gimlet
• Herbal Sakura Garden
• Pear Sakura Collins
• Petal & Stone Sour
• Sakura Drift Martini
• Strawberry Sakura Smash
• Cherry Blossom Green Tea Spritz
• Lychee Blossom Spritz
• Lychee Sakura Martini
• Pink Grapefruit Sakura Sour
• Cherry Blossom French 75 — gin, cherry blossom syrup, lemon juice, topped with Champagne
• Sakura Spritz — cherry blossom syrup, prosecco, splash of soda, over ice

To stretch the syrup further, freeze it in silicone ice cube trays and pull out a cube at a time. It thaws in minutes. I also store a week’s worth in 4 oz glass mason jars in the fridge.

Lychee Blossom Spritz

Glass: Wine glass | Yield: 1 cocktail

Ingredients

• 2 oz sake
• 1 oz lychee juice (canned works great)
• 0.5 oz cherry blossom simple syrup
• 2 oz soda water
• Garnish: 1 lychee + fresh mint sprig

Instructions

1. Add the sake, lychee juice, and cherry blossom syrup to a wine glass.
2. Add ice.
3. Top with soda water and give it one gentle stir to combine.
4. Garnish with a lychee on a pick and a sprig of fresh mint.

Mocktail version: Skip the sake. Add a small squeeze of lime or a splash of white grape juice if the drink tastes flat without the alcohol.

Twist: Press a few fresh mint leaves lightly in the bottom of the glass before adding the other ingredients. A gentle bruise, not a full muddle.