Fairjuice

Interesting Bits

Christmas Cocktail Recipes

Why not get into the Christmas spirit with a delicious Mulberry Fair cocktail?

Mulberry Fizz

Recipe: 50% Mulberry Fair - Mulberry, Red Shiraz Grape and Crushed Limonera Pear

50% Champagne
Glass: Champagne Flute
Method: Half-fill serving glasses with Mulberry Fair

Top up with Champagne.

Serve.

Mulberry Mistletoe

Recipe: 225 ml Mulberry Fair – Mulberry and Sangiunello Orange

25ml Dark rum

Cinnamon

Dash Triple Sec
Glass: Rock/Tumbler
Method: Shake all ingredients together with ice. Alternatively, mix all ingredients and warm over a gentle heat.

Strain into a glass.

Finish with a twist of orange peel wrapped around a cinnamon stick.

10 Mulberry Facts

  1. There are 4 species of mulberry - White, Black, American and Red, plus numerous cross-cultivations. Fairjuice's Mulberry Fair is made from black mulberries.
  2. Black mulberry trees grow wild in Asia Minor, Armenia and the Southern Caucasus region which reaches as far as Persia.
  3. The black mulberry tree can grow to 30 feet (approx 9 metres) in height, but it tends to bush if not trained while young. The trees can bear fruit for hundreds of years.
  4. Botanically, the mulberry is not actually a berry but a collective fruit, meaning that multiple small separate pods are nestled together to give the appearance of a single fruit.
  5. The mulberry mostly resembles a raspberry but its fragile skin makes harvesting difficult. The delicate fruit does not pack or travel well so it must be eaten or processed within hours of being picked. One of the most reliable ways to enjoy the mulberry's unique, fresh flavour is to enjoy a glass of Mulberry Fair.
  6. Mulberries have a hard core (unlike raspberries and blackberries).
  7. Mulberry trees were initially cultivated in China to feed silkworms as the mulberry leaves are their natural and preferred diet. One silkworm cocoon is made of a single thread about 914 meters long. Approximately 3,000 cocoons are needed to make a pound of silk.
  8. According to folklore and ancient medicine it was believed that the leaves and root bark of mulberry trees had purging and anthelmintic (drugs that expel parasitic worms) properties when made into a tea; the fruits, on the other hand, were considered binding and could be used on haemorrhages and swellings.
  9. One of the most famous mulberry trees is Milton's Mulberry Tree, which can be found growing in the Fellows' Garden at Christ's College, Cambridge. It was planted in 1608, the year of John Milton's birth and was named in his honour, as a former student of the college. It is said that he sat under it when he composed Lycidas. Three hundred Black Mulberry trees were bought by Christ's College for the sum of 18 shillings, but the Milton Mulberry is the only one remaining. The tree is carefully watched for the precious mulberry fruit to be harvested by hand every year and made into mulberry jam, a jar of which recently fetched £3,000 in a charity auction.
  10. The mulberry is mentioned in the Romeo and Juliet style Greek legend of Pyramus and Thisbe. The star-crossed lovers were slain beneath its shade, the fruit being fabled to have thereby changed from white to deep red through absorbing their blood.
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