Lime Shortage

Paid 40 cents each in Ralphs the other day, then went to Trader Joe's yesterday and they had bags of 10 for $2.99.

Up to $.69 each at Harris Teeter in Charlotte, NC (they were $.50 each about 10 days ago), or a 2-lb bag of smaller ones for $3.99. The smaller ones aren't worth it unless you're planning to juice a lot at once (with an electric juicer) and save the juice. Otherwise, you end up having to juice more than one lime for just one drink.

Since extra large lemons are the same price as a regular size lime, I just change up my home beverage selection for a while to include drinks calling for lemon rather than lime, until the prices drop again.

Limes have been inconsistent here lately. A week ago my nearest grocer had limes almost as big as your fist that yielded nearly 2 oz of juice each. Now, for the same price (half a dollar), you get some seriously runty limes that have thick rinds and yield a measly half an oz of juice each. I'm starting to think about buying some of the cold pressed lime juice they stock in the bottled section.

If the article I posted a couple days ago is correct, then the situation should begin improving right about now - middle of April.

If you are fortunate to live in a warm-weather climate, definitely consider planting some lime trees. Mine are Persian lime trees. They don't produce fruit year-round, and I'm not sure that this variety does that. But when they do produce fruit, I find myself swimming in nice big juicy limes which look and taste better than the store-bought limes.

90 cents each here but big. 2 ounce limes. However a vag with 9 small ones is $2.50. Hope they get cheap soon.

On 2015-04-17 18:11, Swanky wrote:
However a vag with 9 small ones...

Must... resist... responding... to... typo...

Aw, hell...

I'LL TAKE TWO PLEASE! :lol:

Got some at the local “El Super” for 79 cents a pound. 5 small kine but very juicy. My regular source were 39 cents each but you needed two to make a Mai Tai. They were very tart
Cheers

[ Edited by: nui 'umi 'umi 2015-04-20 23:34 ]

Sam's Club in California has huge and delicious limes in 3 pound bags, I think $3 plus. Costco has anemic juiceless organic limes.

I thought supply was supposed to be up by now so we'd see a drop in prices or increase in quality. My local HEB supermarket has teeny persians for $.25 a piece and they're super hard with thick skin, yielding only around 1/8 oz per lime! I had to squeeze three just to make one drink. My usual go to spot is an Asian market that used to be 6 for $1 for enormous limes that could produce upwards of 2 ounces but they've jumped up to $.50 each which is three times their usual price. Unlike what corkyjon pointed out about his CA Costco, we just picked up a giant bag from our Texas store for $5 and they're small but pretty juicy, giving upwards of 3/4 oz each.

Wish the tree we planted like 2 or 3 years ago would start producing already. If we don't see a price drop soon I might have to start making drinks that call for lemon instead.

I know it might be heresy to some but this is really quite a useful product:

whoa... what was that?!?... an earthquake??

no, wait... just the collective shudders of a million cocktail connoisseurs. :lol:

or... is this lime juice Tiki? :lol:

... seriously though, limes are often in short supply here in the west,
and relatively expensive when they're not.

Gladly, the life-size wahine finally relented, and I've given the Lilac tree
in our back yard a severe pruning, opening up an area large enough
for at least two lime trees. :D

[ Edited by: komohana 2015-05-09 21:49 ]

Bravo to all who plant some lime trees. Its fun to be able to tell guests that you're working with your own limes.

I have two lime trees, and they're getting bigger quickly. I can't use all of the limes when they become ripe, so I have become quite used to "squeeze & freeze" so they don't go to waste. That works for me, but when guests come over (and I have at least some advance notice) I get fresh limes from the store.

My other half gifted me a white grapefruit tree, and it's going into the ground soon. It produces quite a few fruits in the pot, and I can't wait to see it get bigger also.

Not many come out and tell you that, when you get into tiki, you may also learn to develop a green thumb.

I have a lemon tree. I probably had 300 lemons this year. We froze a bunch too. And I buy limes, but as people are saying, lately the quality of the limes leaves a lot to be desired.

We thought about planting a lime tree, but the next priority plants are white grapefruit and passion fruit.

That Nellie's lime juice is pure key lime juice with no other ingredients, not Rose's or some abomination. It doesn't have the exact flavor of fresh cut limes but for drinks with multiple ingredients, or when the lime is mixed with lemon juice anyway, it works out fine.

Orange juice on the other hand I only use fresh. That seems to matter more for some reason.

It's that "from concentrate" phrase that you have to be wary of. It allows them to do all kinds of fun things to the product. Although Nellie's is pretty good stuff.

I have yet to find any bottled lime juice that can substitute for an actual lime. I tried a lot of options during the Great Lime Crisis of 2014, but none of them panned out. If limes are scarce, that's the tiki gods telling you to explore the possibilities of other citrus.

Kevin

Wish I could get my hands on some of these Okinawan shikuwasa. I used to drink their juice when I lived in Japan. Dee-licious. But as far as I can tell, totally unavailable in the US.

On 2015-05-10 11:32, wupput wrote:
That Nellie's lime juice is pure key lime juice with no other ingredients, not Rose's or some abomination. It doesn't have the exact flavor of fresh cut limes but for drinks with multiple ingredients, or when the lime is mixed with lemon juice anyway, it works out fine.

We must also consider that Nellie's is "key lime" juice. This is a different fruit and flavor profile from the Kaffir limes or the Persian limes.

If you like using Nellie's, I'm fine with it, but it's often not what is being used in many of the drink recipes we know and love. It's a cool and interesting variation. But my point is that we should be careful to avoid lumping all lime products into a single lime category. Many of us are too experienced to do that, so just wanted to point out that flavor profile thingy in a friendly sort of way.

I'm fine with you purists - in fact I appreciate the tips! :)

That being said, what's the general philosophy on subbing lemon juice in place of lime? It seems like the difference would be far greater than the difference between persian limes, key limes, fresh vs. concentrate, etc.

During those horrible times, I did a taste test of available products and this came the closest. It's available at select ABC liquor stores in Florida:

http://mybrands.com/Brands/Italian-Volcano-Juice---Organic-Juice/Italian-Volcano-Organic-Lime-Juice-500-ml

Ace, how does your lime juice taste after freezing? Being that you're not adding preservatives or concentrating it, I imagine it's not too far from fresh squeezed. I think you showed me 1 oz cube trays that you pour your juice into and can pop out as needed. So what is your thawing process like when you want to use it? Do you just sit it out til it unfreezes or put it in the fridge and wait for it to liquify or what? I bought a 5 lb bag from Costco and am worried a bunch of them will go bad before I get to use them all, so wondering if I should just squeeze and freeze.

On 2015-05-11 17:38, mikehooker wrote:
Ace, how does your lime juice taste after freezing? Being that you're not adding preservatives or concentrating it, I imagine it's not too far from fresh squeezed. I think you showed me 1 oz cube trays that you pour your juice into and can pop out as needed. So what is your thawing process like when you want to use it? Do you just sit it out til it unfreezes or put it in the fridge and wait for it to liquify or what? I bought a 5 lb bag from Costco and am worried a bunch of them will go bad before I get to use them all, so wondering if I should just squeeze and freeze.

Mike, thanks for asking, this may be helpful to a few folks out there. Sounds like you may need this as well with your 5lb Costco bag of limes. Let us know how it goes.

"Squeeze & freeze" is a preservation and storage method. With a few precautions you should get pretty tasty juice for extended storage periods. I have no qualms doing it and enjoy the juice. I employ "squeeze & freeze" when:

• I don't want to waste fruit (the juice, specifically)
• I want to save a few bucks by saving unused juice for another night, or for another party
• I want the convenience of longer-term and on-demand juice storage without nasty preservatives
• I have surplus juice, and I'm out of room in the fridge, but my freezer has room, ha... (true!)

"In my opinion" when thawed it is surprisingly not far from fresh squeezed. This is even more true because some store-bought limes are sweeter/juicer than others poor ones in the same bag, and if you start with good ripe fruit, you've got a lot of good stuff to work with. However storing the juice too long (WAY too long!) I find that the flavor eventually begins to taper off just a bit. I would guess that this becomes first barely noticeable MAYBE around the 9-12 months point. But I only have juices frozen for that long period of time when I have had a HUGE surplus of fruit or when I haven't been entertaining much. My personal limes, which become harvestable all around the same time, are tree-ripened and really superior to any of the store-bought limes. That is the juice I value the most for its flavor and that is the juice I freeze and save most carefully for future use. I think the process works very well, especially when I have a spur-of-the-moment need for a good cocktail and don't have fresh limes handy or don't want to go to the store late at night.

Yes, I use the skinny 1-oz "water bottle ice" stick molds originally from Wal-Mart. They have since stopped producing them, and all the workalikes out on the market today suck in comparison. (Keep watching for them, they may come back!) But you can find 1-oz square ice cube molds and trays, and they work well, but they just don't store as compactly in the freezer as the long water bottle ice sticks do.

My thawing process:
First, note that I store three sticks in a plastic sandwich baggie to keep air off the juice, and to reduce oxidation. This is critical to preserving the flavor of the juice.
Second, I store 3 sets of 3 sticks in small square juice cartons with the tops cut off. This is purely for ease of handling and storage - it works great in the fridge - and also adds another layer of protection from air circulation.
Third, I defrost the juice in room temperature whenever possible, in advance if I have the time. The skinny sticks thaw quicker than square cubes. If I don't have the time or patience for this, then I will gently warm the juice carefully in the microwave. I avoid doing this for friends and company, but for myself will do this. But I have to be very careful -- warm temps quickly impact flavor, so I avoid being too aggressive in the microwave.
When I know I'm going to have a shindig at home, I do thaw my juices in the fridge and try to begin the process at least 24 hours in advance. If I have only a few hours notice, I may use a warm water bath in my sink since the microwave is the least-favored of the thawing processes.

I think this process works best for lemons and limes. I think grapefruit and orange juices may not be as robust, but more testing is needed. I have lots of lemon and lime juice experience and less orange and grapefruit experience.

I should post some photos, and will try to come back and do so later.

45 limes for $4.95 today :) :) :)

[ Edited by: lunavideogames 2015-05-30 19:26 ]

I found and bought 5lbs of limes at Costco last night for $5.99. Sizes were at or near-normal, and I got 28oz of juice using my Athena "strong enough to crush a car" juicer. This is the first time I squeezed an entire bag of limes and measured the total yield. Now I've got another thing to keep track of in my lifetime... heh...

Limes seem to be back in good supply. I just took this photo in my local Save-A-Lot bargain grocery store - 10 nice Persian limes for a buck:

Yeah, I just noticed here in Texas they're $10/1 at my local supermarket as well. Yay! I actually ended up buying humongoloid ones from the Asian market though. They were 6/$1 but produce 1.5 oz or more per lime. So wonderful. You may have noticed in the "what are you drinking now" thread I've been imbibing quite a bit more frequently than usual.

And I thought 4 for a buck was a good deal at my local San Diego CA Ralphs! (lowest price there in a while). San Diego TC folks, where is the best lime deal you have seen? Mahalo!

Up in the Dallas area, I've been able to get 15/$1, recently, at various Mexican-style supermarkets. A few weeks back, it was 25/$1 - I actually got tired of counting. I'm a little choosey - you want the thin-skinned, juicy ones - so it's not just the first 25 I could grab. But by 18, I was tempted to just say, Eh, good enough. But I stuck it out to number 25! :)
Now, it's lemons that are pricey - 3/$1 or more.

"The rum's the thing..."

[ Edited by: Limbo Lizard 2015-06-26 16:38 ]

In San Diego, Stumps on Voltaire in Point Loma had them 9 for $1, but I think they dropped it to 6 for $1 now. I will post when I see another great deal.

Thank you Lunavideogames! That's more Mai Tais for the money!

That's a lot of limes Limbo Lizard! What is up with the price of lemons? I need them to make authentic Mr. Bali Hai cocktails (thanks to the Bum sharing the recipe).

Lime shortage for me - OVER! My young tree is now about 9' tall and fruits are ready to pick now.

Here's the first of what I expect will be a total of four of these baskets. The 2015 season is a good one for this Persian Lime tree. I'll be giving quite a number away to my local tiki ohana. I'll be picking in three more waves as the remaining fruits reach full size. But today's first harvest was amazing. And the aroma of the fresh juice is truly magnificent. From tree to finished drink in about an hour. Drink photo is posted in "what are you drinking now" thread.

Celebrate!

I thought I had a hot tip til I saw Ace’s Baskettul of just picked limes
For those of you near Santa Fe Sprigs (Calif.) “El Super” Has been selling em at 3 lb.s for a dollar for the past month.
Someone mentioned that they look for the "thin skinned ones” Me too and I have the best luck when the skin is thin,shiny, and smooth. Time to open the Sharkbite Bar .
I was saving myself for Oasis but I might as well get started
Cheers

Is this happening again?? Everywhere I go no limes or shitty limes. Every place says they haven't seen good limes in 2 weeks. Anybody else seeing this?

Three that words may help you find limes....

Mexican grocery store.

Oh, and pick up some of those yellow Mexican mangos while you are there as they are in season now.

Everywhere I've checked lately the limes have been thick skinned and tiny plus the prices have gone up. The Mexican market by my house which was 8/$1 last month is now at 4/$1 and they look like key limes. They're yielding just a 1/4 oz of juice per fruit which means it's costing me $1 per ounce which is completely unacceptable. I started making more drinks that call for lemon lately. My wife just went with a friend who has a Costco card and picked me up a huge bag of limes for $5. Haven't squeezed to see how juicy they are yet but that seems to be the best deal around here.

On 2016-05-15 07:14, mikehooker wrote:
Everywhere I've checked lately the limes have been thick skinned and tiny plus the prices have gone up. The Mexican market by my house which was 8/$1 last month is now at 4/$1 and they look like key limes. They're yielding just a 1/4 oz of juice per fruit which means it's costing me $1 per ounce which is completely unacceptable. I started making more drinks that call for lemon lately. My wife just went with a friend who has a Costco card and picked me up a huge bag of limes for $5. Haven't squeezed to see how juicy they are yet but that seems to be the best deal around here.

We got the 5 dollar bag at Costco's yesterday. Less than an ounce per lime:( What are your favorite lemon ingredient tiki drinks?

On 2016-05-15 09:45, arcadiandj wrote:
What are your favorite lemon ingredient tiki drinks?

I've super been loving on the Saturn lately. It's a gin drink that's super refreshing. With homemade passion fruit and falernum it's really delicious. Rather than blending to a slushie consistency as the Beachbum recipe calls for I shake and pour in a tall glass with ice. It doesn't hurt to double the recipe. Made a batch at two different parties recently and it was a hit among tikiphiles.

I agree the Saturn is a great drink. I like the "slushie" version too so either way you can't go wrong. I always double the recipe, they are pretty tiny if you don't. Good luck on the lime hunting!

Complaining again??? I'm actually happy when they are this price. Occasionaly they are cheaper when they are in season (maybe 2 for $1 or 3 for $2), otherwise it's closer to $3 a piece.

Curious what the typical wage difference is between US and Austrailia. Many States in America still have a minimum wage sitting around $7-8 an hour whereas I'm betting Oz is quite significantly higher than that. I'd imagine that translates to much higher pay in skilled professions as well. Just wondering how impactful that is when it comes to your seemingly high cost of limes and booze. Perhaps it's an unfair comparison if your earned dollars are twice that of ours.

Where does your citrus come from? Do you have native breeds or do they come from CA or Mexico?

Saturn? Good drink? You bet! The Cocktail Virgin blog says:

"On Thursday a week and a half ago, I was in the mood for something a little playful when searching for that night's cocktail. Therefore, I reached for Beach Bum Berry Remixed and found the gin-based Tiki drink, the Saturn. The drink was created by J. "Popo" Galsini, a bartender in Polynesian restaurants during the 1950s and 60s in California. The Saturn was one of his more famous recipes as it claimed first place in the IBA World Cocktail Championship in 1967."

On 2016-05-15 10:51, mikehooker wrote:

On 2016-05-15 09:45, arcadiandj wrote:
What are your favorite lemon ingredient tiki drinks?

I've super been loving on the Saturn lately. It's a gin drink that's super refreshing. With homemade passion fruit and falernum it's really delicious. Rather than blending to a slushie consistency as the Beachbum recipe calls for I shake and pour in a tall glass with ice. It doesn't hurt to double the recipe. Made a batch at two different parties recently and it was a hit among tikiphiles.

Smuggler's Cove does a shaken and strained Saturn that is my second favorite cocktail on their 75+ drink menu. So good, but so hard to get right at home. It's a delicate balance.

On 2016-05-16 08:07, JenTiki wrote:

Smuggler's Cove does a shaken and strained Saturn that is my second favorite cocktail on their 75+ drink menu. So good, but so hard to get right at home. It's a delicate balance.

Figuring out the correct amount of ice, shake time, and method of pouring is a worthy endeavor me thinks. After determining I liked the flavor of this drink but not the slushie-like consistency, I started shaking and straining into a chilled coupe glass when making them for myself at home. Then for a party I did a batch (like 10 times the recipe) in a big pitcher with ice and just swizzled the heck out of it til it was well frosted. Wasn't as yummy. Then for another party I went back to shake mode, making three drinks at a time, I put all the ingredients in a large shaker with plenty of ice. Poured with ice into three glasses and topped with more ice. Repeat. Those batches I think hit the best balance. Perhaps it got closer to the dilution of the slushie version this way, without having that consistency?

I'm thinking this drink needs it's own thread since we've done a dandy job of derailing the lime thread and there seems to be lots of love for the Saturn. We haven't even talked about gin brands/types yet.

The Northgate Markets in L A-Orange county are getting a buck 99, a pound . Small but who cares when you’re buying by the pound. I picked some juicy ones ( about an ounce of juice each) and 7-8 limes per pound. Gonna check out some of the other ethnic mrkt’s in the area. Never bottled!
Cheers

On 2016-05-16 12:55, mikehooker wrote:
I'm thinking this drink needs it's own thread since we've done a dandy job of derailing the lime thread and there seems to be lots of love for the Saturn. We haven't even talked about gin brands/types yet.

Good idea, Mike. Oh --- gin brands & types --- can't even begin to tell you how much fun I've had discovering and digging in to various gins over the past 5 or so years. And whiskies too. I've taken over space in my dining room for the gins and whiskies I've been buying.

:drink:

On 2016-05-16 12:55, mikehooker wrote:

I'm thinking this drink needs it's own thread since we've done a dandy job of derailing the lime thread and there seems to be lots of love for the Saturn. We haven't even talked about gin brands/types yet.

Agreed. Go for it!

MAN - my local Asian grocer currently has limes for $0.69 each, up from $0.49 each a week or so ago and $0.19 each a month ago. Lemons are actually cheaper, which I rarely (if ever) see. This and the extreme lack of white grapefruit right now is stressing my liver out.