Post #243159 by Sabu The Coconut Boy on Sat, Jul 15, 2006 8:43 PM

Sorry to de-rail the current progress of this fine thread, but I'm returning to Limes again.

This morning I was able to purchase some Fallbrook Limes from the local farmer's market in Torrance. I suspect these limes are only available in California, but I thought I'd try them in a Mai Tai and share the research with the group.

Here are some photos comparing two Fallbrook Limes to one of the larger Mexican Limes (Myers?), available in the local Hispanic market near my house. The Mexican limes are my standard ingredient for Mai Tais and make a darn good Mai Tai at that. Normally, they are lime-sized but they are in season right now and have ballooned up to the size of lemons this month. They are cheap too right now, at 4 lbs to the dollar. The Fallbrook Limes are a regular lime size, have yellower skin and flesh, have thinner rinds, and are very juicy as well. They cost me $2.00 a lb.:

First the taste test. The Mexican Lime has a strong, sour, tart flavor and leaves no aftertaste. The Fallbrook Limes on the other hand have no sour or tart taste whatsoever. They are sweet and they leave an aftertaste of Key Lime Pie in your mouth. They are defintely limes though. The aftertaste is defintely Key Lime Pie and not Lemon Meringue Pie. They are a nice lime just to suck on, much like an orange.

I next mixed two double-Mai Tais according to the standard Trader Vic's recipe I've always used and learned from Doctor Z. I used the same amount of juice in each Mai Tai. Then I sampled them. The Mexican Lime Mai Tai was sublime as normal - tart and the flavors of the rums come through nicely and mix with the lime for a complex and wonderful drink. No surprise there.

Then I sampled the Fallbrook Lime Mai Tai. I was prepared to be disappointed but I was surprised at how badly I was disappointed. The Mai Tai was sickly sweet and hard to choke down. The sweetness of the limes mixed with the syrups in the drink completely overpowered the rums and left just the whisper of lime on your tongue afterwards. It wasn't just a poor Mai Tai, it was a execrable drink altogether and I had to dump it down the sink. It was sad to waste that good rum.

It just proved to me how important the right kind of lime is to the flavor of a Mai Tai. The drink I made with the Fallbrook Limes I wouldn't even consider calling a Mai Tai. It was a completely different creature.

Sabu