To provide a means for improving the gustatory flavor of extract from the flower part of basswood (e.g. Tilia cordata Mill. or Tilia platyphyllos Scop.) which is hard to be utilized because of having unpleasant gustatory flavor so as to make the flower part of basswood easily takable in the form of food and drink.

This means comprises the steps of mixing at least one kind of compound selected from the group consisting of sugar alcohols (e.g. erythritol, xylitol), citric acid, malic acid, lactic acid, phosphoric acid and monosaccharides wherein its sweetness is 0.1 to 0.7 time that of sucrose (e.g. glucose, xylose) and disaccharides (e.g. maltose, lactose) with an extract from the flower part of basswood.