I like citrus flavours
Two short legs separating the two ways citrus reaches a cup: peel from an actual citrus tree, and plants that taste strongly of lemon while being no relation at all. The second group is larger than most readers expect.
Who this is for
Someone who reaches for lemon in a cup and wants to know what else gives that character.
What you should come away with
A working distinction between citrus peel and lemon-scented leaves, which is the difference between a drink that turns bitter on a long steep and one that does not.
Leg 1 · Peel, where citrus is strongest
Dried peel rather than juice, which is a different flavour entirely and behaves differently in hot water. Age matters here more than the fruit does.
Starting point. Everything after this is measured against it.
Deep dried-citrus with a woody, slightly camphorous edge and very little brightness. Young peel is sharp and one-dimensional; genuinely old peel is rounded and complex.
Why this step follows
Both are citrus peel and neither tastes like the juice. Bergamot is floral and sharp where aged chenpi is dark and slightly medicinal, so the age of the peel matters more than the fruit it came from.
Floral citrus with a hard bitterness behind it, more complex and less sweet than orange. The dried peel is a shadow of what the oil delivers.
Leg 2 · Lemon without a lemon tree
Two plants that are not citrus and taste more strongly of it than most citrus does. The step is about finding a level you can live with.
Starting point. Everything after this is measured against it.
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.
Why this step follows
Two plants that taste strongly of lemon and are not citrus at all. Lemon myrtle is the more intense by a distance and will overwhelm a blend; lemon verbena is where most people find the level they actually want.
Bright clean lemon with almost no bitterness and a slightly sweet finish. Distinctly sharper and less waxy than lemongrass, and it holds up under a long steep.
Read alongside
- The citrus tangle
Almost every citrus in this catalogue is a hybrid of a hybrid, most of them descend from three ancestral species, and the names on the shelf record commerce rather than botany.