Driscoll's strawberries

Aren't they beautiful? I was lucky enough to come across a punnet of Driscoll's Berries ("the finest berries in the world!") and was absolutely blown away by the quality of these strawberries. They were at perfect room temperature, all of them unblemished, firm and just-ripe, and with a strong sweet flavour that was so good, it was like the first prototype of strawberry taste that all subsequent strawberries failed to live up to.

I reasoned that such sublime berries were the only thing I could justify combining with my homemade vanilla sugar: the one I've been saving for just such an occasion. Of course the berries needed nothing, but the fresh vanilla-podded-sugar sprinkled gently over them was pure ambrosia. (A split vanilla pod, in a jar of fine caster sugar, with the seeds scraped in as well. Let sit for a few weeks, shaking occasionally).

Driscoll's is an American berry company, but the ones I came across were, I believe, from their QLD growers in Caboolture. Berries that good couldn't have made it all the way from the US in such great nick. If ever you find some, don't think about it, try them for yourself!