Strawberries and Champagne are the quintessential ingredients for any romantic night in. So how did this tiny fruit become a popular love staple?

There is an obvious association with love; the fruit grows in the shape of a tiny red heart. A latter version of the Aphrodite and Adonis story claims to tell the origins of the strawberry: Aphrodite was in love with the beautiful Adonis, but his love for hunting ended up being his undoing. Gored by a boar, he lay in the forests gasping his last breaths as Aphrodite rushed to his side. She poured nectar on his wounds, hoping against hope to heal him, but it was too late and her beloved mortal died in her arms. Popular myth claims that her tears mingled with his blood; as this fluid seeped into the ground, strawberries grew in their place.

Peter Paul Rubens, mid 1630’s. Housed in the…