Amarula

Marula trees grow wild across the lowveld and are not cultivated in orchards, so the fruit for Amarula is collected from wild trees by thousands of rural harvesters during the short season from about January to March - it is picked off the ground, since fruit that has fallen is ripe. The pulp is fermented, distilled, aged in oak for a couple of years and then blended with cream, which gives a sweet liqueur tasting of something between caramel and stone fruit. The elephant on the bottle refers to the fact that elephants eat marula fruit enthusiastically, and the widely repeated story that they get drunk on fermented windfalls has been examined and found not to hold up - an elephant would have to eat an implausible quantity for the alcohol to have any effect. The tree matters to people too: marula is used for beer, oil and food across the region.

What you actually see

• Wild-harvested fruit - collected off the ground from uncultivated trees.
• A short season - roughly January to March, with thousands of rural pickers.
• Oak and cream - distilled, aged a couple of years, then blended with cream.
• The drunk elephant myth - repeatedly checked and not supported.

When to go

All year to buy; January to March for the harvest. An hour.

Honest expectations

It is very sweet and quite low in alcohol - a dessert drink rather than a spirit. Cream liqueurs do not keep long after opening and need cold. The distillery tour is small and commercial. The elephant marketing is exactly that.

Nearby

The Kruger's Phalaborwa gate is close; the lowveld marula country surrounds it.