Tulaberry

A tulaberry was a blue fruit native to the Gamma Quadrant and the main ingredient in tulaberry wine.

In 2370, Grand Nagus Zek explained to Quark that tulaberries were the key to establishing a Ferengi presence inside the Gamma Quadrant and asked Quark to negotiate a contract for tulaberries with the Dosi. However, Zek later admitted that he was using the tulaberry trade to learn the secret of the Dominion, which he believed was the true key to profit in the Gamma Quadrant. (DS9: "Rules of Acquisition")

In 2378, when helping Seven of Nine decorate her holographic quarters, a holographic representation of Neelix suggested a Talaxian mosaic in tulaberry blue, with an orange inlay. (VOY: "Human Error")

A cut scene from "Ferengi Love Songs" would have established that tulaberries were grown in vineyards, and that Leck was considering investing in such vineyards on Seppus III

In popular culture

In August 2013, the TV series Breaking Bad made a reference to tulaberries in the mid-season premiere, "Blood Money", of the show's fifth and final season. Characters Brandon “Badger” Mayhew and Skinny Pete are discussing Star Trek, debating if the transporter really teleports people or if it destroys them and simply makes a perfect copy somewhere else (ironically, a similar accusation was mentioned by the man who invented transporter technology in ENT: "Daedalus"). Badger then describes an idea for a Star Trek script which he has had for a long time. In his script, the crew's mission has been boring and uneventful for some time, so they decide to hold a pie-eating contest in the mess hall - "tulaberry pies". Pete says that he doesn't know what tulaberries are, to which Badger responds "Tulaberries, from Gamma Quadrant, yo." Pete sharply interjects "That's Voyager, dude." Annoyed, Badger continues by saying, "Okay, blueberries. They're eating blueberry pie."

As Wired.com subsequently pointed out, however, tulaberries and the Gamma Quadrant in particular are from Deep Space Nine, not Voyager. They speculated that the incorrect attribution was intentional, a further joke at how the stoner characters mixed up the Star Trek spinoffs.

That being said, the overall comment about "tulaberries from the Gamma Quadrant" is indeed implausible for a story set in the original series, because Starfleet did not have access to the Gamma Quadrant in Kirk's time. However, Quark and other Ferengi in Deep Space Nine are negotiating contracts to sell tulaberry wine to the Gamma Quadrant, which would seem to imply that tulaberries actually grow in Ferengi territory in the Alpha Quadrant, and are not actually from the Gamma Quadrant itself.

References

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