Yuzu vs quince
Two Korean winter preserves spooned into hot water rather than steeped, made the same way from fruits that are otherwise nothing alike.
botanical
What is being compared
Point by point
| Aspect | Yuzu | Quince |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A knobbly aromatic East Asian citrus with very little juice. | A hard, intensely fragrant pome that is inedible raw. |
| The preserve | Rind sliced thin and layered with an equal weight of sugar or honey. | Sliced and layered with sugar or honey over weeks. |
| Flavour | Very sweet with a bitter marmalade edge and a grapefruit-mandarin aroma. | Perfumed between pear, apple and rose, sweet from the preserving. |
| Preparation | A spoonful stirred into hot water. Not steeped. | The same. Treating either as an infusion produces the wrong drink. |
| Where it is made | Korea as yuja-cha, made at home in autumn and kept in the fridge. | Korea as mogwa-cha; Iberia turns the same fruit into membrillo. |
| The other tradition | The Japanese winter-solstice yuzu bath, which has nothing to do with drinking it. | Marmelada in Portugal, which gave English the word marmalade. |
| Buying | Jars vary enormously in fruit-to-syrup ratio; some are largely sugar. | Same problem, and the pink colour of long-cooked quince is a good sign. |
The short answer
Both are winter comfort drinks and both are preserves rather than infusions. Yuzu is the brighter and quince the more perfumed.
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