Skip to main content

Lemons, Limes, Grapefruits, Oh My! A Beginner’s Guide to Cocktail Citrus

It’s hard to think of a cocktail that’s not made complete with citrus fruit. Think about the twists of lemon, the squirts of lime or even a glass of orange juice and citrus is a quintessential piece of cocktail culture. The fresh tartness or sweetness from citrus fruits does wonders to bring a cocktail to life.

The acids in citrus fruits play beautifully against the alcohol and sugar in cocktails, as they cut each other’s unpalatable extremes. Plus, many gins and liqueurs end up using citrus fruits or, at least, express notes of the fruits. 

Recommended Videos

If you’re new to cocktails and are unsure what citrus you should be using in cocktails, we’ve got you covered. After we go over the benefits of fresh juice vs. bottled juice, we’ve got a guide for all of the common citrus ingredients in cocktails and then some.

Fresh Juice vs. Bottled Juice

Let’s make this clear, fresh is almost always better than pre-packaged juice. That also goes for pre-packaged juice, the fresher, the better. Fresher juice offers a much better zip does a better job tying together cocktails.  Like any produce, the global agricultural market makes citrus available pretty much any time of the year, but make no mistake, winter is when they’re generally tasting the best. A firm peel with a little give and feels heavy for how big it looks are the prime indicators the fruit is ideal. And when we say fresh, we mean fresh. Squeeze while making, lest you lose the aromatics through oxidation.

Bottled juice is more consistent than juice from several fruits, but that’s just a risk you should take with the freshness. If you are having a party where many cocktails will be consumed over a long period of time, bottled may be your best bet for the sake of ease. Just look for the freshest possible juice (as opposed to the frozen cylinder of concentrate that you mix with water).

Types of Citrus for Cocktails

Lime

lime citrus cocktail salt rim
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Lime should be a staple — well all of these should be — on a bar, in a kitchen, or anywhere a drink might be made. As a key ingredient in countless cocktails, limes certainly have an argument to be the most important citrus fruit in the cocktail biz, and probably the most refreshing. There are a number of different lime varieties around the world, which include: makrut, finger limes, and key limes.

Works well in: Few cocktails showcase lime like a mojito or daiquiri, but a slice of lime is a great complement to many drinks.

Lemon

lemon slice juice
Image used with permission by copyright holder

A twist of lemon rind finishes enough drinks, but the sour flavor can be used in so many ways in juice form. There are a lot of varieties of lemons, perhaps most famously Meyer, but the Lisbon and Eureka lemons are the most common supermarket varieties. If you can’t find Meyer lemons, don’t fret, the other types we named do wonders in cocktails.

Works well in: Lemon juice is best experienced in a whiskey sour or add a twist to a martini — and if you’re feeling really frisky a Lemon Drop.

Orange

orange citrus cocktail
Image used with permission by copyright holder

There are an incredible amount of cocktails using orange juice as a base, and it makes sense, as so many people use it as a base to start their day.  From champagne and OJ in a mimosa to a Fuzzy Navel, orange juice finds its way into many drinks. Oranges are incredibly versatile when it comes to the liquor its paired with as well. Vodka, rum, and tequila all mix well in OJ, while orange peels offer a nice accouterment to whiskey drinks. As with lemons and limes, there are a number of different species of orange, each with different levels of sweetness and flavor.

Works well in: You can go all out and mix vodka and orange juice for a screwdriver, or just garnish a fantastic Old Fashioned with an orange peel. It’s a very versatile fruit, plus they taste good on their own!

Grapefruit

grapefruit citrus fruit
Image used with permission by copyright holder

This big fruit is a familiar sight on breakfast tables and is a great juice to drink on its own, plus the fruit is simply delicious. Grapefruits do come in a lot of different varieties with varying flesh colors and flavors. Most often, grapefruit will be a gorgeous mix of sweet and tart, making it a perfect mixture for plenty of spirits. Grapefruit finds a fantastic match in gin, which oftentimes has botanicals reminiscent of grapefruit if grapefruit isn’t in it to begin with.

Works well in: Try grapefruit in a Paloma with tequila, a Salty Dog, or simply a slice of grapefruit in a vodka soda.

Mandarin Oranges, Clementines, and Tangerines

clementine
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Mandarin oranges and Clementines are basically small oranges (more on that in a second), but with a little bit more burst of flavor, so long as they’re ripe. Common oranges are a hybrid of Mandarin oranges while clementines are a hybrid of a willowleaf mandarin and a sweet orange. Tangerines are larger than either, also a hybrid of Mandarins, and hail originally from Morocco. Like the other two, the taste is sweeter and more potent than oranges.

Works well in: If you’re going to use any of these fruits, it will work well in just about every instance where you might use an orange.

Yuzu

yuzu fruit citrus
Ippei Naoi / Getty Images

Looking a bit like an ugly lemon the size of an orange, yuzus aren’t great for eating on their own, just like limes and lemons, but the fragrant fruit is an amazing addition to recipes, both food and cocktail. Yuzu has a generally more mild flavor than lemons, but still sour and tart enough its uses should mostly be limited to juice and zest.

Works well in: Yuzu has been a cocktail darling for a few years now and works well in place of lemon or lime in a variety of cocktails.

Bergamot Orange

bergamot fruit citrus
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The fruit is a bit befuddling since Bergamot is a type of orange, but it’s green like a lime. It’s a common piece in Grey teas (of the Lady and Earl varieties) and is so pungent it also makes its way into perfumes and colognes.

Works well in: With its importance in the tea world, these oranges work well in gin-based drinks. In addition, it works well in homemade bitters thanks to its sourness.

Pat Evans
Pat Evans is a writer based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, focusing on food and beer, spirits, business, and sports. His full…
Want a cocktail that surprises? Try these Middle Eastern-inspired winter drinks
New flavors in familiar glasses
Sifr mango cocktail.

When was the last time you sipped on a cocktail that was made as an homage to the flavors of the Middle East? It's probably been a while. So we rounded up some great winter cocktails informed by this particular part of the globe.

Hot Toddies and holiday punches are great, but nothing new. Instead, try a cocktail that blends mango with bergamot or treats bourbon to Za'atar spice. Because steering clear of conventions can yield tremendous results.

Read more
Holiday drinks with a tropical twist: A top tiki bar shares its cocktail recipes
Get festive with these pro-level cocktails
Three Dots and a Dash festive cocktail

The holidays are coming fast and you could probably use a good cocktail. Whether it's for yourself or something to hand to your guests as they arrive, we've got you covered. And instead of a boring old hot toddy or similar, we thought we'd go the route of stellar tiki cocktails.

So we reached out to our friends at Three Dots and a Dash, one of the best tiki bars in the land. The Windy City establishment is known for its well-structured tropical drinks, which so often reflect the season in addition to tiki culture.

Read more
This carrot-based signature cocktail is blowing my mind
I've been searching for a carrot cocktail for years
carrot signature cocktail harbour club a riva orange julius 1

Like any good home bar enthusiast I have my top-shelf liquors proudly on display, and my regular go-to well spirits tucked under the bar but close at hand, the mixers in a box below that. And then I have the mysterious graveyard which I like to call the realm of the mystery booze. Leftovers of home-made experimental infusions, tiny samples of spirits with labels too faded to read, strange bottles that never had a label in the first place -- you know the stuff. The kind of thing you dig out to make your friends drink on a dare at a certain point in a lively evening.

Among this baffling collection is a small bottle with a smudged label declaring it to be karottenbrand, a German carrot-based spirit which tastes like someone waved a carrot over a vat of paint stripper. Is it good? It is certainly not. And yet, it has fascinated me for years, with the beguiling possibility of what it might be like if it were good. The concept of a carrot spirit is so intriguing to me -- the sweet-savory flavor, the fit in a Bloody Mary or a Dirty Martini or even as an additive to a savory G&T. I can imagine so many uses for it, if only it were not awful.

Read more