Post #719535 by nvasilakes on Sat, Jun 7, 2014 7:17 PM

I did a lot of searching and reading on how well lime juice keeps after it's fresh squeezed. I found answers anywhere from it keeps a couple hours if left uncovered to it keeps up to a week if covered. By the way, by "keeps" I mean as good or almost as good as fresh squeezed.

While doing my research I found a topic where a large group blind tasted lime juice in limeade and overwhelmingly preferred the lime juice that was a few hours old to the lime juice that was squeezed most recently. Apparently a little oxidation is preferable.

Sometimes I just want a tiki drink and I don't want to spend the time fresh squeezing my own limes. I just want the drink quick and easy. I read several reviews on different bottled lime juices and found that, overall, most people recommend Nellie & Joe's Key Lime Juice if you have to go bottled. I bought a bottle and tasted 2 Mai Tai's side-by-side. There was no comparison at all. I had my girlfriend taste them both blind. In her words: "This one [bottled lime] tastes like fruit punch and this one [fresh squeezed lime] tastes like a cocktail." She then took the fresh squeezed version and made for the other room, asking if she could have it without waiting for a response.

So the Nellie and Joe's was a dud. I resigned myself to fresh squeezing limes every time. Then I had an idea.

On May 25th I bought a bunch of limes (they finally went down to 4/$1 at my local source) and hand pressed a little less than 24 oz of lime juice into two clean 12oz beer bottles (I'm a home-brewer). After filling, I sprayed a little inert gas (Private Reserve Wine Preserver) into the bottle, then capped it with a bottle capper. My hypothesis was that the amount of oxygen introduced to the juice while squeezing would be about equivalent to the few hour old juice that won the lime juice taste test I referenced above and that the inert gas (heavier than air) would form a barrier between the juice and the oxygen in the bottle to prevent further oxidation and degradation of flavor. I placed both bottles upright in my fridge.

Well, today, about 2 weeks later, I put my bottle to the test! I made 2 more Mai Tai's, one with fresh squeezed lime and one with the bottled stuff. By the way I made these Mai Tai's with Beach Bum Berry's recipe using: B.G. Reynolds Orgeat, Appleton Extra, Rhum Clement VSOP. I tasted each and found virtually no difference. Actually, if I had to choose, I'd pick the bottled stuff! It tasted a little more...together.

I quickly brought both to my girlfriend and had her taste each one blind. She said they tasted the same. I explained each had different lime juice and when I pressed her to pick one, she gave the bottled stuff a slight edge.

So there you have it! You can bottle your lime juice and it will keep at least 2 weeks and be as good (or better) than fresh squeezed! I still have the other 12oz bottle capped and will do another test later on. Probably 1 month or maybe even more later to see how it holds up.