Limes. . . Is it just me?

I just snapped off the handle of my old 'friendly' lime juicer! All for about 1/2 oz of fresh Persian Lime Juice . . . from 'Persian' Limes that came from Mexico (3 for $1.00). I live in Florida . . . we used to grow citrus right here and you could buy it from local roadside produce stands . . . I say 'used to' because now we have to import limes (and other citrus) from Mexico . . . I used to get better than 1.25 oz of lime from a Florida-grown 'Persian' lime . . . and now these Mexican Limes . . . same size . . . but only 1/2 oz of juice? And break my faithful old friend "Larry Limie" to boot! It's a conspiracy I tell you, a conspiracy!
Wait a minute! "Persian" Lime . . . Persia . . . Hmmmmm . . . what happened to 'Persia' . . what is it called today? Hmmmmmm I know that Siam is now Thailand . . . . so Persia is what? IRAN! Never-mind . . . that explains it!
Mind the gap!

Or, you could add your comments to the pre-existing lime juicer thread,
here

Limes are like 49¢ each at the moment for me, ya it sucks, but I'm not sour about it.

Here in Cali limes are 7 for $1.49 at Trader Joes. They should be cheaper just cuz Cinco de Mayo is tomorrow.

Hangman, sorry, your closest one is in Atlanta. http://traderjoes.com/Attachments/all_locations.pdf

On 2007-05-04 17:20, Tikiwahine wrote:
Limes are like 49¢ each at the moment for me, ya it sucks, but I'm not sour about it.

Are you tart about it? :wink:

A big reason why your Mexican Persian limes have little juice is just as you alluded to; they're grown/harvested from a region very far from where you bought them.

The farther fruits and vegetables have to travel, the less tree-ripening they are allowed, in order to be "ripe" in store bins.

Try to see if you have any farmers' market close to home. You'll get your ounce and half back, I'm sure. Here's one that not too far, in Port St. Lucie:

http://www.ftpiercefarmersmarket.com/index.html

...edited for spelling error...

[ Edited by: Haole'akamai 2007-05-04 18:41 ]

I'll let you in on a little chef's secret:
The smoother the skin, the more juice.

Works for limes and lemons.

Stay away from the dimply, pitted, rough skinned limes and you'll do fine.

Koka Nut's father in law has a prolific lime tree that we get about a hundred from each year.
We get free citrus from all kinds of friends about town.
I grow my own mint.
Now all I need is a sugar cane field and a rum distillery and I'll be all set.

Smooth skin, yep, forgot to mention that; all citrus: lime, lemon, orange and grapefruit.

Well based on personal experience, I have two lime trees. This is not the season for limes here in California, there are non to be found on my trees. All the available lime is expensive even in cheap markets. All the ones I have been buying from the markets around hardly have any juice and almost all are tough skinned. If you leave them around for a while they will actually get thinner in skin and turn juicier. Last winter I had so many limes I didn't know what to do with them so I froze the juice. I have been using them now, they are quiet good a little acid flavored but really good. And it is so easy, I just thaw and pour.

Ooooh, thanks for the smoth skin reference...never kenw that. :D

Tikiwahine : If you look back at the thread you mentioned . . . I'd already posted there . . . THAT is the "Larry Limey" I broke attempting to get every last drop out of the imported Mexican lime. The good news is: I went out to the very same Wal-Mart and replaced him with his twin: "Leopold Limey"!
I'm pretty well-versed in the overall quality and variations in limes . . . I guess my main purpose was a commentary on how sad it is that we have to import fruits like limes from other countries while the local grove lands (at least here in Florida) are succumbing to development. Four months ago I could buy the very same Mexican limes @ 10 for $1 and get in excess of 1 oz of fresh juice out of them. It's just sad, is all . . I'm not really 'sour' about it . . . I can always resort to Nellie and Joe's Key West Lime Juice - one of the better bottled brands I might add, so I'll manage. There's just that something special about the lime shell 'Island' with the mint sprig 'tree' growing out of it as a garnish for my Mai Tais that I'll miss briefly.

Oh . . . and I grow my own mint as well. Nothing like fresh from the garden!

I bet you feel more like you do now now than you did when you came in.

GH

[ Edited by: GentleHangman 2007-05-05 09:42 ]

I read the posting complaining about the Persian limes from Mexico. The problem as I see it isn't that the limes came from Mexico but that you were using the wrong type of lime. The best drinks are made from Mexican Limes. Got a tree right here in my back yard here in the desert in California. Another thing, don't juice the lime until it is yellow. Mexican limes, besides being superior to Persian limes in taste, provide little juice unless they have been allowed to ripen, and by that I mean turn yellow. Once you use Mexican limes (the little ones you see in the supermarket) you'll never go back to Persian.

By the way, a fully ripened Mexican lime will give you a little over a 1/2 - 1 ounce of juice.

What about the Bearrs lime?

The riper the lime is harvested, the better juice, hands down, regardless of type. Buy local - better for the eco-nomy, as well, but that another thread.

The lime crop this season does appear to be disappointing. I have been having the same problem. It takes two limes to get the juice I normally get from one. In fact, I got about as much juice from one of those little key limes than I got out of a Mexican lime.

As to buying the wrong type of lime . . . that's all that is available. The last batch I purchased were in a mesh bag . . . not loose. As for local - there are NO local limes available. I've gone North and South, 30 miles in each direction . . . nothing. And when limes are plentiful in the local stupidmarkets . . . there's only one kind (Persian) in a loose bin. And usually they're imported from Mexico as well. The local Farmers Markets in my area are dwindling.

Ack! I'm feeling it - the loss of what brought Florida to the forefront of US minds - the citrus. Beautiful citrus groves being replaced by larger population density.

My mom "retired" to Florida (first to Key West, now she's up in St. Augustine) about 20 years ago. She kept telling me how FLA reminded her of California in the 50's. CA saw the change from Orange grove agriculture. And so goes Florida.

It makes you need better limes for bigger Mai Tais....

Joe's Key West Lime Juice... If you can't find proper Mexican Key Limes - Persian Limes ruin the taste and were never used in the Ancient's recipes anyway - then go to the internet and have yourself shipped some Joe's Key West Lime Juice. Also, you can use this in your Key Lime Pies: 1/2 cup of Key lime juice, 1 can of condensed milk, and 4 egg yolks. Use the whites for your merinque.

Haole'akamai : Thanks! Someone finally understands where I was going with this.

telescopes : Two day ago I wrote . . .

I can always resort to Nellie and Joe's Key West Lime Juice - one of the better bottled brands I might add, so I'll manage.

I'm not sure what kind of limes the "Ancients" used for their Tiki Drinks . . . but this "Ancient" wants his local FloriDUH-grown limes! Dagnabbit!

I bet you feel more like you do now now than you did when you came in.

GH

[ Edited by: GentleHangman 2007-05-07 13:19 ]

Florida grows many varieties of limes. Persian limes are not what was used for drinks or pies for lots of reasons, non of which had to do with where they were grown. I understood you lament about location. However, location is a lesser concern in terms of quality. Who cares if a local lime can provide lots of juice if the juice is the wrong type of juice for the drink in question.

Having tended bar as well as tended several bartenders, the only lime we ever used was key lime. I simply feel this is important to point out given that many home drink makers might wonder why thier home mixes fail to taste right. Hence why I agree with you on the bottled lime... they make theirs using key lime juice.

Mexican Limes are what you want, Key Limes are Mexican Limes, & also called West Indian Limes or Bartender's Limes, and have the flavor you're looking for. Persian/Bearss/Tahitian Limes are also all the same thing.

On 2007-05-07 08:19, telescopes wrote:
Also, you can use this in your Key Lime Pies: 1/2 cup of Key lime juice, 1 can of condensed milk, and 4 egg yolks. Use the whites for your merinque.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM........Pie!

Ahhh, you've once again tapped into my love affair with key limes. The little buggers are more labor intensive than Persians, but in my most humblest of opinions, they are superior in taste. But remember they have a much higher acidity than Persians and so you can use less juice if you prefer.

Honestly, I use both regularly. But in a completely unscientific test, I switched from Persian to key lime in my wife's drink and she came back and asked if I did something different with the lime because it tasted better than the first drink (which had Persian). So there ya go. The wife has spoken.

On 2007-05-08 05:56, GatorRob wrote:

Honestly, I use both regularly. But in a completely unscientific test, I switched from Persian to key lime in my wife's drink and she came back and asked if I did something different with the lime because it tasted better than the first drink (which had Persian). So there ya go. The wife has spoken.

GatorRob, your wife is so right. Using a persian lime is akin to substituting kool-aid in your Hurricane for Pat's authentic mix. You can't do it and then say it is a Hurricane. A mai tai with Persians isn't the same drink. Mexican limes are an essential component of Poly drinks. Frankly, if I don't have any in-house, I skip making the recipe that calls for lime juice until I have some available.

Yes, they're a pain... small, acidically biting the cuticles as you tend to them, not to mention the way they rot out the enamel of your teeth, but what they contribute is the difference between an authentic Gauguin and a Gauguin print you find on a tie sold at Macy's.

[ Edited by: telescopes 2007-05-08 12:53 ]

For the 30+ years I've lived here along the "Treasure Coast" of Florida the ONLY limes I've ever seen in either of the three major supermarkets (Winn-Dixie, Publix and Albertsons) whether they be loose in a bin or in a mesh bag were Persian limes. Usually they're just labeled "Limes" . . . but when you read the origin tag at the lower edge of the display, it will say 'Persian' and give the origin . . . usually Mexico or Texas and sometimes, even Florida.
We do however get "Key Limes" every once in a while and they're always pre-packaged in mesh bags and are about the size of a large walnut. I've NEVER seen these have any other origin other than Florida. Maybe they are grown elsewhere and that's fine with me, but I've just never seen that here. When it comes to using Key Lime juice, I'd rather just use Nellie and Joe's and not have to mess around with those bitty limes.
The last batch of Persian limes I got were of normal size, smooth-skinned and some still showed some yellow . . . but they just didn't have much juice!
I guess it just boils down to when you deal with what Mother Nature offers . . . you takes 'yer chances!

I thought I'd better check what I was raving about regarding Key Limes. I just made two Mai Tai's; one with Key Limes and one with Persian. Yup, the key limes won. The only problem was is that the rums on hand were Bacardi... Still, the independant variable remained the same for both drinks. Now I gotta go brush my teeth in order to save the remaining enamel. See ya!

Here's a visual on the limes...

The visual above says it all. Those are the exact two limes I'm talking about. The Persian limes are the limes we have all the time, and the Key Limes only occasionally.
So, for most all of the time if one wants to use a 'fresh' lime here in my section of FloriDUH, the Persian is all that's available.

GentleHangman, odd that you can't get key limes more often. Here in Orlando, my local Publix has them nearly year round.

Glad I found this thread.
I've got both a Key lime and Persian lime tree in the back yard.
I've been using the Persian lime, easier to get to it's right outside the bar room door and it doesn't bite.
The dang Key lime tree has some pretty gnarly thorns and is up on a ridge.
I'll have to switch over and use the Key limes.
As usual anything worth while is usually more work.
Thanks for the lime lesson.

One note:
Previous owner advised us to always pick a few each week and never pick the trees clean and they would bear fruit all year.
Been doing this for quite a few years and the trees constantly have fruit here in SoCal.

That's great advice. I've kind of noticed that myself in terms of slowly picking the fruit off my key lime tree. It seems if I only pick the yellow ones, I have fruit just about all year. Of course, I prefer to wait till they fall in order to skip the thorns, but that isn't always the case. A nice ripe yellow key lime coughs up quite a bit of juice. As an aside, I still have scars on my left arm from picking fruit six months ago.

Going into the wild for a little pleasure is a dangerous thing indeed.

Posted: Today; 06:59 am

GentleHangman, odd that you can't get key limes more often. Here in Orlando, my local Publix has them nearly year round.

Definitely not the situation here . . . Key Limes every so often . . . Persian limes are the norm. I'm not complaining about Persian limes in general as I use them most always for my Tiki drinks that call for fresh lime juice. Besides, in Trader Vic's own words regarding the invention of the Mai Tai . . he doesn't specify what type of lime he used but he is pretty particular about all the other ingredients. I'm guessing that he simply used the run-of-the-mill Persian lime. And, I don't recall Key limes being specified in the Grog Log or Intoxica recipes (off the top of my head anyway), simply "Always squeeze your own lime juice. The difference is crucial to the fresh, crisp, "alive' taste you're after."
Maybe the next batch I purchase locally will yield more juice per lime than my current batch.

I've posted this before, but you all might be interested in it, regarding the use of Persian versus Key limes at the Mai-Kai.

http://www.cocktail.com/destinations/2001/MaiKaiPolynesianPotionParadise.htm

After reading this thread last week I happened to come across key limes at Costco. Something I hadn't seen there before. I bought a bag of keys and Persians for a side by side. I had not used key limes for drinks before this weekend, but if I can find them again I'll definitely buy them. I'm hooked on the little buggers. I agree they are more work and the seeds are kind of a pain, but damn they're good.

When I was a little kid I drank a lot of tea (just regular Lipton) and always had to have lime in it. I was very particular about the limes and would not let my folks or anyone else pick them out. I had to be the one to select them. I'm still the same way, but now know a lot more about them.

TMI on limes (aka everything you might never have wanted to know):

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/tahiti_lime.html

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/mexican_lime.html

I grew up in New England, came down to Washington to go to school and ended up staying. Being that neither area is tropical (nor close to it) there never are any local limes. Mostly, I use Tahiti/Persian/Bearss limes. Occasionally, Key/Mexican/West Indian limes will turn up in the store and I'll treat myself to the delicacy. Actually, both varieties tend to be imported from Mexico—especially, when the US crops get damaged or have a bad year.

Anyway, when I go to the store, usually the lime bin is small enough that I will inspect every lime they have and take all the best ones. I will often seek out the produce manager, ask him if he has more limes in the back, and if I can go through them all. Hopefully, I will have found, at least one good lime in his bin so I can show him what I'm looking for. I tell him that if he gives me a good price for buying a lot of them, I'll take all he has of the kind I'm showing him. Just because the sign says 3/$1 doesn't mean you can't get a better deal.

For every decent lime there are usually ten or more that seem like little green lemons. The good limes (smooth shiny skin, plump, and oval) are generally not as large as the green lemon specimins. Unless there is no other way, I won't buy limes in a netted bag. I've found that the ratio of good limes to "green lemons" is even worse in the netted bags. Often they have no decent limes inside at all.

Once you have your limes at home, as precious as they can be when they're selling at 2 or 3 or 4 for a dollar, you don't want them to go bad or dry up on you. Here are a few tips on the care and maintenance of limes:

If the skin becomes discolored or pitted it is probably being over-chilled. Don't store limes below 45°F.

If the limes seem to be drying up, check the humidity. They should be stored in a place with high humidity (85%-95%).

If they seem to be deteriorating rather rapidly, check to make sure you're not keeping them near apples, avocados, bananas, melons, peaches, pears, or tomatoes. All of those fruits are high producers of ethylene, which adversely affects limes.

TMI for ethylene: http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ethylene-Gas.htm

Hope my 2¢ helps someone.

[ Edited by: The Gnomon 2007-05-15 13:08 ]

Wow, that was more than 2 cents worth! You definitely take your limes seriously. One thing though, regarding key limes, they turn from dark green to yellow when they are ripe and I believe it is those that you want. But I know you were referring to Persians.

On 2007-05-16 10:02, GatorRob wrote:
But I know you were referring to Persians.

Yep. The "green lemon" reference is regarding Persians. Key limes are pretty rare around here, so I'm not nearly as particular. Sometimes they come in a netted bag, and while I don't buy Persians in a bag unless I have no choice, around here if you see a key lime, you snatch it up.

OK so I'm by no means an expert on this, but....
I have found a pretty sure fire way to pick the juiciest limes (Persians). There is a Mexican market on the corner near me and they carry the larger Persians and little bity green limes...they actually look darker than Key limes, but they may be. Anyway, I have found that if you pick a lime that looks swollen they tend to be ripe and full of juice. Limes have, what look to me like pores. If a lime is very dark green and the pores are deep--it will be less juicy. A lime that is starting to turn yellow and the pores are shallow--the lime looks swollen, those tend to be quite juicy. I hope this makes sense.

Digi, in your case, I wouldn't be surprised if you had just run into Persian limes from two different farm sources, the smaller ones having experienced a bad growing season. They could also be Persians and another variety of lime that isn't Key lime (e.g., Kaffir limes—very bitter, bumpy-skinned, look like little spherical green brains: but their leaves are essential in Thai cooking).

I'm just guessing now, even though I should probably know (and most likely will find out soon), but I suspect that most of the limes we buy in the grocery stores are of a grade called "US Combination." The USDA grades for limes are: US No. 1, US Combination, and US No. 2. Because limes don't "have" to be graded, there is also the designation, "unclassified."

Since there always seems to be a mixture of lime qualities in each carton of limes that is received into the grocery stores, it's probably US Combination. I would think that US Combination would be cheaper for the stores to get than something requiring more labor to distinguish quality.

Here is the USDA specification for the grades of Persian (Tahiti) limes.

Plump, soft, heavy limes, regardless of other characteristics, are going to be juicy. The shiny, smooth-skinned ones taste the best. Bigger is not better. I'd rather have a smaller lime of excellent quality than a "green lemon" of twice its size.