We all know that for great cocktails, you need great ingredients. That’s especially true for relatively simple cocktails of just a few ingredients, as these leave nowhere to hide. Usually we think of that rule in terms of not using bottom-shelf spirits, and making sure that our vermouth is kept in the fridge and hasn’t gone bad. But it applies to fresh ingredients too, especially citrus.
Citrus fruits, especially lemon and lime, are some of the most common cocktail ingredients, used in everything from Mojitos to Gin Gimlets to Whiskey Sours. So it’s important to get these fruits right when you want to use them for mixing.
How to pick great citrus at the store
You’ll often see cocktail recipes call for freshly squeezed juices specifically, and that’s because there’s no way that preserved juices from a carton can compare to something fresh out of a fruit. Starting with fresh lemons or limes is good, but not all citrus fruit is created equal, and here’s where you want to be careful when shopping.
There’s a tip I picked up from Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s Bar Book which has revolutionized the way I approach citrus, and it’s this: you need to give your fruits a little squeeze when you’re choosing them at the store. When you pick up a lemon or lime, feel its weight and heft. Give it a gentle squeeze. You should be able to feel which fruits are juicy and fresh, and which ones are dried up and older.
Obviously you want to avoid any citrus which is molding or excessively soft. But get used to testing each lemon or lime before you buy it, and you’ll be amazed how much brighter and fresher your citrus cocktails taste.
Do I feel like a bit of an idiot every time I’m fondling limes in the supermarket? Yes. Has it helped make my cocktails better? Unquestionably yes.
Why fresh citrus matters
As citrus fruit ages, it tends to dry up. This means that not only that you get less juice out of a two week old lime than a fresh one, but also that the character of that juice changes over time. Juice from older fruits tends to be much sharper and less sweet, and therefore less balanced and easy to work with. You can try adding more simple syrup to compensate for older fruits — and if that’s all you’ve got in stock, then adding sugar will certainly help — but you’ll inevitable lose a significant part of the juicy richness of a fresher fruit.
It’s worth trying for yourself if you’re serious about making cocktails. Take an older lime and a fresher one and squeeze each. See how much juice you get from each, and then taste each of the juices. You could even try making a simple cocktail like a Gimlet with each. The different is stark — fresher fruits really do make for a brighter, sweeter, more deep cocktail, while older fruits will make for a drink which is thin and acidic.
