I wonder if Kaibara means “the only ones that can be dried using traditional methods” or “the only ones that have a tradition of being dried”? or maybe “the only ones that are improved by drying” (since drying them does up their sweetness and in the case of astringent persimmons, make them edible)
with Japan’s humidity, I imagine it’s hard to dry any fruits that ripen in spring or summer, so possibly the fall ripening of persimmons also comes into play…
reading the previous chapter, I did sort of think “well, the ultimate sweet is really just a fruit”, so maybe I can get close to the sensibility. but you could also go for pure fresh sugarcane juice, or using bitterness to emphasize something sweet (maybe we’ll see that in the next confrontation? as someone without much of a sweet tooth, it’s the pairing of things like green tea or coffee that make a sweet truly delectable)
