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Fruits and berries

The group most often met inside a blend rather than on its own, and the one where a reader is most likely to be tasting something other than the fruit named on the front. Apple pieces supply bulk, hibiscus supplies the red and most of the tartness, and flavouring frequently supplies the rest.

28 recordsDried whole or in pieces, and the group most often blended rather than drunk alone.

All 28

  • Allspice
    Warm and clove-dominant with cinnamon and nutmeg behind it, which is exactly what the English name promises. Closer to clove than to anything else and softer than clove is.
  • Bael fruit
    Sweet and faintly resinous with a caramel depth, quite unlike any other citrus relative. Usually served sweetened further, which it does not really need.
  • Baobab
    Sharply sour with a yoghurt-like tang and a chalky body that never fully dissolves. The texture is unusual and is part of what the drink is.
  • Barberry
    Sharply sour with a bitter edge, closer to cranberry than to cherry and more aggressive than either. Sweetening is standard.
  • Bergamot
    Floral citrus with a hard bitterness behind it, more complex and less sweet than orange. The dried peel is a shadow of what the oil delivers.
  • Blackcurrant
    Sharp, deep and unmistakable, with a green catty note that is characteristic of the fruit and that some people dislike intensely. It survives drying better than raspberry or strawberry do.
  • Cacao husk
    Lightly chocolatey and faintly fruity, far more delicate than the smell suggests. It is not a substitute for hot chocolate and disappoints anyone expecting one.
  • Carob
    Very sweet and raisin-like with a roasted depth, and no bitterness or fat at all — which is precisely why it does not taste like chocolate however it is marketed.
  • Chenpi
    Deep dried-citrus with a woody, slightly camphorous edge and very little brightness. Young peel is sharp and one-dimensional; genuinely old peel is rounded and complex.
  • Dried apple
    Mildly sweet and apple-like, and quite faint on its own. Its function in a blend is body and bulk rather than flavour — it is the most common filler in fruit infusions, and much of what a reader takes for fruit character is coming from elsewhere.
  • Elderberry
    Dark and winey with a firm tannic grip, more like a young red wine than like a fruit tisane. Nothing about it resembles elderflower.
  • Goji berry
    Mildly sweet with a faintly savoury tomato-like edge that surprises people. The berries are usually eaten after the water is drunk.
  • Hawthorn berry
    Sharply sour with an apple-like fruitiness and a woody base from the seeds and core. Usually sweetened, and the sourness is the reason it is drunk.
  • Jujube
    Sweet and date-like with a caramel depth and very little acidity. It needs simmering rather than steeping to give much up, and the difference between a five-minute steep and a twenty-minute simmer is the difference between faintly sweet water and a drink with body.
  • Juniper berry
    Piney and resinous with a peppery bite, and instantly recognisable to anyone who drinks gin. A few crushed berries is a pot and a spoonful is turpentine.
  • Kumquat
    Sweet peel and sour flesh together, and the salted version adds a savoury depth that makes the drink far more interesting than sweetened citrus usually is.
  • Lemon peel
    Bright citrus aroma with a firm bitterness and no acidity — the sourness of a lemon is in the juice, not the peel, which surprises people expecting sharpness.
  • Orange peel
    Bitter and aromatic, with the bitterness increasing as the peel ages and the aroma deepening alongside it. Fresh peel is sharper and more floral; older peel is rounder and darker, which is the whole basis of the aged-peel trade.
  • Pomegranate
    Overwhelmingly tannic — one of the most astringent materials in the catalogue — with a dry fruit note behind it. Nothing like the juice.
  • Quince
    Perfumed in a way that sits between pear, apple and rose, sweet from the preserving and faintly astringent underneath. The aroma of a raw quince in a room is its most famous property.
  • Rosehip
    Tart and lightly fruity, softer and less sharp than hibiscus. Most commercial 'rosehip tea' is mostly hibiscus with rosehip as the minority component.
  • Schisandra
    Sour first, then bitter and resinous, with a genuinely saline finish. It is one of the few things in the catalogue that is difficult to describe with a single word, which is what the name records.
  • Sea buckthorn
    Ferociously sour with a tropical aroma that no northern berry has any business having, and an oily texture that coats the mouth. Always sweetened.
  • Sour cherry
    Sharp cherry with a marzipan note from the stone and a tannic finish. Considerably more interesting in a drink than sweet cherry, which flattens out entirely.
  • Star anise
    Sweet, liquorice-like and considerably warmer than anise seed. Very assertive in a drink and usually one point rather than a whole star.
  • Sumac
    Sour and mouth-puckering with a fruity depth behind it, closer to cranberry than to lemon despite the comparison everyone makes. Cold water extracts it better than hot.
  • Tamarind
    Sharply sour with a dark molasses sweetness behind it, and a thickness closer to a cordial than an infusion. It is not drunk unsweetened anywhere it is traditional, which is worth knowing before judging a first unsweetened cup.
  • Yuzu
    Very sweet with a bitter marmalade edge and an aroma somewhere between grapefruit, mandarin and lime that no other citrus reproduces. The rind is the point and the texture is part of the drink.

Commonly confused within this group

  • Cinnamon and Star anise — Both warm sweet spices in mulled drinks, and neither is what the other is. Cinnamon is a bark and star anise a fruit.
  • Hibiscus and Rosehip — Blends of the two are sold under either name. Hibiscus is the deeper red and the sharper.
  • Dried apple and Hibiscus — Dried apple is frequently the largest ingredient by weight in a fruit infusion named after something else.
  • Elderflower and Elderberry — The same tree harvested months apart, and two entirely different drinks. The flower is light and muscat-scented; the berry is dark, tannic and winey.
  • Blackcurrant leaf and Blackcurrant — Leaf and fruit of one bush, and unusually the leaf really does carry the fruit’s aroma — but none of its sweetness.
  • Carob and Cacao husk — Sold as a cocoa substitute and is not one. Cocoa’s character comes from fat and bitterness, and carob has neither.

Guides covering this group

Other groups

Grouping is by the plant part used, which is a fact about the material rather than a judgement about flavour. A plant appears in one group only, so cinnamon is a bark and not a spice here even though every kitchen in the world files it the other way.