We forgive you if you're not familiar with the fruit of the marula tree. We didn't know anything about
this yellow berry either until we tried Amarula Cream, a South African cream liqueur that strikes us as an
exotic Kahlua.
Marula trees are found mainly in the warm, frost-free regions of subequatorial Africa, and the vitamin-C-rich fruit belongs to the same family as the mango, sumac, cashew and pistachio. While elephants (which
grace the bottle) like to eat them directly off the tree, we like to drink the cream liqueur that results from
the flesh of the fruit being pulped, sweetened, fermented, aged in oak casks for two years, and blended
with fresh cream. The caramel-like flavor is sweet but not cloying, and is enjoyable straight from a
refrigerated bottle, on the rocks, or in coffee. Try it as a dessert in the recipe below.