A Complete Guide to Eating Mulberries: Fresh, in Wine, and as Jam, Each with Its Own Flavor

Mulberries are a common berry in spring and summer. Ripe fruit is purple-black, with juicy flesh that is sweet with a tart edge, and it can be eaten fresh or processed into many kinds of food. The ways to enjoy it are quite flexible, and preparing it at home day to day is not complicated.

The most common way is to eat it fresh. Choose plump, deep purple mulberries, soak them briefly in lightly salted water, then rinse with clean water and drain before eating. Mulberry skins are thin and tender, so handle them gently when washing to avoid rubbing them open and releasing juice. It is best not to eat too many at once, and people with a weak stomach should control their portion even more.

There are also plenty of processed ways to eat them. After washing and draining mulberries, simmer them with rock sugar to make mulberry jam, which is good spread on bread or stirred into yogurt; steeping them in baijiu with rock sugar and sealing the jar makes a home-style mulberry wine; and sun-dried or oven-dried mulberries become dried mulberries, which can be soaked in water or cooked into porridge. In addition, juicing and making a paste are also common methods.

Mulberries can also be used in dishes and desserts, added to cakes, bread, or all kinds of sweets to boost flavor. Note that fresh mulberries do not keep well, so after buying them it is best to refrigerate them and eat them as soon as possible; traditionally they are considered cooling in nature, so people with weak and cold spleens and stomachs should eat less. Whichever way you choose to eat them, fresh fruit and clean preparation are the basic requirements.