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Juniper berries are sometimes regarded as arils, [3] like the berry-like cones of yews. Juniperus communis berries vary from 4 millimetres ( 1 ⁄ 8 inch) to 12 millimetres ( 1 ⁄ 2 inch) in diameter; other species are mostly similar in size, though some are larger, notably J. drupacea ( 20–28 mm or 3 ⁄ 4 – 1 + 1 ⁄ 8 in).
Juniper berries are a spice used in a wide variety of culinary dishes and are best known for the primary flavoring in gin (and responsible for gin's name, which is a shortening of the Dutch word for juniper, jenever). A juniper-based spirit is made by fermenting juniper berries and water to create a "wine" that is then distilled.
Juniper berries are used as a seasoning in cooking or in alcoholic beverages, [6] particularly to flavor gin. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] Juniper berries have also been used in traditional medicine for different conditions, although there is no high-quality clinical evidence that it has any effect. [ 8 ]
A small quantity of ripe berries can be eaten as an emergency food or as a sage-like seasoning for meat. The dried berries can be roasted and ground into a coffee substitute. [10] Utah juniper is an aromatic plant. Essential oil extracted from the trunk and limb is prominent in α-pinene, δ-3-carene, and cis-thujopsene.
The fruit are berry-like cones known as juniper berries. They are initially green, ripening in 18 months to purple-black with a blue waxy coating; they are spherical, 4–12 mm ( 5 ⁄ 32 – 15 ⁄ 32 in) diameter, and usually have three (occasionally six) fleshy fused scales, each scale with a single seed.
The seed cones are the largest of any juniper, berry-like but hard and dry, green ripening in about 25 months to dark purple-brown with a pale blue waxy coating; they are ovoid to spherical, 20–27 mm (3 ⁄ 4 –1 in) long and 20–25 mm diameter, and have six or nine fused scales in 2–3 whorls, each scale with a slightly raised apex.
Juniperus californica is a shrub or small tree reaching 3–8 meters (10–26 feet), but rarely up to 10 m (33 ft) tall. The bark is ashy gray, typically thin, and appears to be "shredded". [5]
The common metal bathtub in use at the time would have been ideal as would have been a ceramic bathtub, hence the name, 'bathtub gin'. However, since distillation is boiling and condensation in a closed apparatus, and cannot be accomplished in an open vessel such as a bathtub, stories of distilled alcoholic products produced in an open bathtub are likely untrue.