Lemon myrtle
An Australian rainforest tree with the most concentrated lemon aroma of any leaf in commerce — stronger than lemongrass, lemon verbena or the lemon itself. A single leaf will scent a whole pot, which makes it the easiest botanical in the catalogue to overdo.
Identity
- Botanical name
- Backhousia citriodora
- Family
- Myrtaceae
- Part used
- Leaf
- Origin
- The subtropical rainforest of coastal Queensland
- Drunk in
- Queensland, New South Wales
Character
Overwhelming clean lemon with a eucalyptus edge behind it. Far stronger than any other lemon-scented leaf, and unpleasant at the quantity you would use for lemongrass.
Notes: lemon, lemongrass, eucalyptus
History
Used by Aboriginal peoples of the Queensland coast and brought into commercial cultivation only in the 1990s, when Australian native food crops began to be farmed rather than gathered. It is one of the newest botanicals to reach international markets and the industry is still small.
How it is drunk
Drunk as an infusion across Australia and used in cooking, baking and commercial flavouring. Outside Australia it appears mostly in blends, where a very small proportion does all the work.
Production
Leaves are harvested from managed plantations, dried at low temperature and often cut. The aroma compounds are volatile enough that drying temperature is the single biggest determinant of quality.
Preparation
Infusion · Blended with tea
Herbal infusion (tisane)
1–2 g/100 ml · 90–95 °C · 4 min
Category-typical practice rather than a measurement for this specific botanical. Most infusions are far more tolerant of a long steep than tea is.
What gets confused
Sold interchangeably with lemongrass and lemon verbena in blends and roughly four times as strong as either. Substituting by weight will ruin the result.
Common mistakes
- Using a normal teaspoon. Half a teaspoon is a large pot.
Related botanicals
- Lemongrass — Both sold as lemon-scented leaf and lemon myrtle is roughly four times as strong. Substituting by weight ruins the result.
- Lemon verbena — Clean lemon leaves with no soapiness, differing mainly in strength — one is a pinch and the other a spoonful.
Comparisons
- Lemon myrtle vs lemongrass — Both sold as lemon-scented leaf, and lemon myrtle is roughly four times as strong. Substituting by weight is the fastest way to ruin a pot, and it is the most common error with the Australian plant.
- Makrut lime leaf vs lemon myrtle — Two intensely citrus leaves from opposite hemispheres, both far stronger than they look, and both largely destroyed by drying.
Evidence for this page
This page is TeaHQ synthesis throughout. No external source stands behind any statement on it, including the botanical name. Twenty of the 150 botanicals have had their names and distribution checked against a taxonomic authority and this is not one of them.
Brewing parameters here are typical practice for the category rather than measurements of this plant, and each set says so.
This page makes no safety claim. It describes what Lemon myrtle is, where it comes from and how it is prepared — not what it does to a person. The absence of a safety note here is not a statement that the plant is safe. How TeaHQ handles this.