Haskap

Lonicera caerulea · Berry

40 pairings

Haskap — also called honeyberry, blue honeysuckle or, in Japan, haskappu — is the elongated, deep blue-violet fruit of the edible honeysuckle Lonicera caerulea, a cold-hardy shrub of the boreal north. Tart-sweet with a flavour often likened to a cross of blueberry, raspberry and blackcurrant, it ripens earlier than almost any other temperate fruit and is eaten fresh, frozen, or made into jam, juice and wine.

Picking a good onedrag

Deep blue, plump, purple throughWeeping or fermenting

Full blue, soft-fleshedThe ordinary good punnet — haskap is soft by nature, not by age. Eat it raw, spread it on a tray to freeze, or cook it down with sugar into jam.Everyday best

SkinBlue and full, bloom rubbed thin where fruit touched

Squash oneSofter, still whole; the juice a shade lighter but clear

Stem endScars dry, a few loose stalks and leaves in the box

SmellAlmost nothing — a quiet berry, and that is normal

What to look for, from deep blue, plump, purple through to weeping or fermenting.

What one gives you

100%

Usable yield

About 1.7 g a berry, the middle of a published 1.3-2.2 g range. All of it is the edible portion — thin skin, purple-red flesh and the many tiny soft seeds are eaten together — so there is nothing to subtract.

1.7 g

Typical weight

one specimen

Preparing