Strawberry is a favorite flavor of many people around the world and is heavily utilized in a wide range of food items, such as candy, ice cream, gelatin, glazes, and drink mixes. True strawberry flavor is obtained by concentration and distillation of fresh berries, but many synthetic versions of the flavor are also available. Enjoyment of strawberries, which come from plants in the genus Fragaria of the rose family Rosaceae, has a long history, but the large, sweet modern variety was not developed until the eighteenth century, when an accidental cross of a white-fruited variety from Chile and a red-fruited species from Virginia was produced. Strawberries are relatively simple to grow, but are easily damaged when picked or shipped, a fact that has contributed to the popular use of synthetic, rather than true, strawberry flavor in many commercial items.