Probably the single most important component responsible for making the fruit basket the most popular gift in history is the modern technology applied to the delivery of the product itself. Overnight delivery from almost anywhere in the world, is what makes the fruit basket the most versatile and exotic of gifts available.

When fruits from Afghanistan can be picked on a Wednesday, delivered to a manufacturer in America on Thursday, assembled and sent out to you on the same day and on your Holiday table by Friday morning, that is something never envisioned by the Ancient Kings and Queens who dined on the finest of fruit from their kingdoms.

Were it not for the existence of the fruit basket, very few people would have cared enough to pay the higher prices necessary to consume fresh cherries from South America and fresh pineapples from Hawaii in the dead of winter, when the temperatures reach 15-degrees below zero Fahrenheit, on the East Coast.

But the idea of surprising a loved one, or celebrating a birth, or rewarding a good customer with freshly picked, sweet, exotic fruits at precisely the time when they are not available, provided the fuel for the idea of shipping quality fruits around the world on a mass basis. You