The raspberry is the soft, jewel-red aggregate fruit of Rubus idaeus, a thorny cane-growing bramble in the rose family. Each berry is a thimble-shaped cluster of dozens of tiny, velvety drupelets that lifts cleanly off its core when picked, leaving the hollow centre that tells a raspberry from a blackberry. Intensely sweet-tart and perfumed, it is eaten fresh and turned into jam, coulis, liqueur and the fruit at the heart of countless desserts.