I was unbelievably excited when I visited a farmers’ market the other day and saw punnets of mulberries. They have such a short season, it’s just not something you see. I snapped up two punnets. Those little purple babies were burning a hole in my pocket as I rushed home to try them. How would I use them? Whilst considering their fate, I made a quick Mulberry Cocktail to assist in contemplation.
A Unpotted History
Despite dating back to ancient civilisations in Greece, Rome and China, it’s very difficult to identify the true origins of the mulberry. It is lost in the mists of time. What is evident is that the silk industry in China and the expansion of the Silk Road through the Asia, the Middle East and Europe helped to spread the mulberry far and wide. They are particularly prevalent as both a fresh and dried ingredient in Persian cuisine including sherbets, cakes, teas and eaten as a dried snack. Mulberries can be a very long-lived tree, with one in the Gainsborough Museum in Suffolk being over 300 years old. Shakespeare grew mulberries and mentions them several times in his plays, the most famous being when the Pyramus and Thisby plan to meet under the mulberry tree in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
Despite their popularity, mulberries are delicate to pick and nearly impossible to transport which is why they are not grown commercially in Australia. That’s why I was so thrilled to find those punnets of mulberries. A true labour of love for the person who picked them. Cheers to you mulberry farmer!
Mulberry Smash Cocktail
This mulberry cocktail is like a spring afternoon.
Floral scented and fizzing with the promise of the summer to come.
Ingredients
- 2 x mulberries (or substitute blackberries)
- 2 x tspns icing (confectioner’s) sugar
- 10ml limoncello
- 20ml vanilla or plain vodka
- soda water
- garnish – ice, lemon zest curls, mint leaves
Method
- Muddle mulberries and icing sugar in the bottom of a glass until sugar is dissolved. The resulting seeds and pulp in this Mulberry Cocktail are very soft and easy to drink.
- Add limoncello and vodka.
- Add ice and top with soda water. Garnish with a curl of lemon zest and mint leaf.
Serves 1
= 1 standard drink (Australia)
We grew up with the most amazing mulberry tree that’s still spoken about today. Wish it was in my back garden now for me to try this.
I have heard many stories in recent days about people who grew up with mulberry trees but no longer have them. I think they were probably considered old fashioned and also took up a bit of room. You never know what you’ll miss until you can’t have it anymore.
Delish! Funny you should say that about Mulberries being long lived. Friends have just come back from touring Uzbekistan and showed us photos of 600 year old trees. They are devils to gather aren’t they? But so wonderful.
They are all gone now. There’s just something about them – so soft to eat and soft in flavour. Better rounded flavour than a blackberry, I think. Amazing about that tree!
Oh my word, how divine! I used to love it when I was managing the Belconnen Markets… Christmas was the only time we would see punnets of mulberries. Lovely post x