Lime

Lime is the wild cousin at the citrus table. Where lemon is clean and bergamot is gracious, lime is loud, green and a little sweet in a way that can feel almost tropical. I use it when a composition needs an edge that lemon is too polite to give.

What lime is

Lime oil can be cold expressed from the peel or steam distilled from the crushed whole fruit. Ours is distilled. The heat of distillation transforms the oil, softening the raw peel character and creating a sweet, slightly candied, coumarin like note that expressed lime never has. This is the lime of a good cocktail rather than the lime of the cutting board. It is treated to remove bergaptene, so it is safe on skin in the sun.

Where our lime comes from

Our lime comes from Mexico, the largest exporter of limes in the world and the home of the small, intensely aromatic Key type, Citrus aurantifolia, rather than the larger Persian lime found in supermarkets. The heat of the Mexican lowlands pushes the fruit to full aromatic strength, and the distilleries there have refined the whole fruit method over generations. A distilled lime from a cooler place is thinner and lacks the sweet depth that makes the Mexican oil so useful.

How lime smells

Fresh, strong, sweet lime with a coumarin like softness underneath. It is greener than lemon and rounder than you expect, with a faint warmth that lets it sit comfortably beside herbs and spices.

Lime in our chapter

• IIParadis de BleuThe Leaves · in the opening

  In Paradis de Bleu it joins lemon, lavandin and the anise seeds in the opening, adding the green bite that keeps the leaves chapter alive and slightly wild.

A note from the atelier

I chose distilled lime over expressed lime for Paradis de Bleu on purpose. Expressed lime would have been sharper, but the distilled oil carries a sweetness that shakes hands with the fennel and star anise beside it.

Questions about lime