Only in Japan can you find strange foods like garlic flavored cola, deep-fried maple leaves, and delicious water cake, but citrus-scented eggs are pretty strange, even by its standards. And yet these fruit-smelling eggs do exist thanks to a producer in Kochi Prefecture, in the southwest corner of Shikoku island.

The special eggs, called ‘yuzu tama’, supposedly smell and taste like yuzu – one of Japan’s most loved citrus fruits. A yuzu looks like a wrinkly cross between a lemon and an orange and tastes like a combination of grapefruit and mandarin. It grows in abundance in Kochi and is used widely in Japanese cuisine.

Surprisingly, the yuzu tama don’t contain any chemical additives or flavorings. They are produced merely by feeding chickens copious amounts of yuzu peel, along with kale, non-GMO corn and sesame seeds. The resultant eggs don’t look very different from regular eggs, but they supposedly smell tantalizingly citrusy, even before they’re cracked open.

According to RocketNews24, “cracking one of the eggs open releases more of the yuzu aroma, enough that you might be wondering if there are any added scents or perfumes.” They also mention that the “yolk has a mellow flavor, and the white has a great texture, not too soft and not too firm. And when you chew, there’s this invigorating wave of yuzu aroma coupled with a refreshing citrus taste that spreads through your mouth. The yuzu flavor isn’t as powerful as the scent, and if anything, it helps to draw out more of the egg’s inherent rich sweetness.”

Yuzu tama eggs are available at around 400 to 500 yen (US $3-4) for a six-pack. While they’re most easily found in Kochi, there are a few Tokyo stores that stock them as well.

Photos: RocketNews24