high-quality buckwheat flour; first-grade soba flour
Made only from the white center of the buckwheat grain, yielding a pale, fine flour prized for delicate soba noodles.
Soba made with sarashina flour is pale in color and has a smooth texture.
更科 (Sarashina) is a place name in Nagano Prefecture historically associated with high-quality soba; 粉 means 'flour'. The term refers to flour made in the Sarashina style, using only the endosperm.