Lemon Peels 28g (1oz)

Popular addition to lawnmower beers, pale beers, Belgian beers and Wheat beers.

Lemon peel, also know and lemon zest is the outer skin of the lemon that holds all the essential oils and flavour of the lemon. It is described as intense citrus with subtle bitterness.

The bitterness of lemons come from the pith (white fury part). This lemon peel is dried and cut ideal for use as a gin botanical.

Originally native to Asia, the lemon is believed to have originated in India. Although the tree was introduced to Europe via Italy in Roman times, lemons were not properly cultivated in Europe until around the time of the Renaissance, by which time it was already well-established in the Arab world, mostly as an ornamental plant. Columbus brought lemons to the Americas in 1493, shortly after the first substantial European cultivation had begun in Genoa, northern Italy.

Citrus Limon is an evergreen tree of the Rutaceae (citrus) family with a pretty pinkish-white flower. The trees are not large and have been popular in ornamental gardens for centuries. Lemon’s familiar oval ellipsoid fruit have a wide variety of culinary and medical uses thanks to its unmistakably sour, tart flavour and high acidity and Vitamin C levels.

In gin, the lemon is peeled and the peel is dried before infusion and distillation. Lemon peel is in the top five or six most common botanicals used in gin and contributes an easily-identifiable fresh, tart, citrus note whose crispness nicely offsets and compliments the heavier juniper and earthier spice notes. It hardly needs pointing out that a slice or twist of fresh lemon is far and away the most common garnish for G&Ts and Martinis.

Lemon peel brings a strong citrus character to Bombay gins and also lifts the other botanicals. The lemons come from the Murcia region of Spain, a basin between the mountains and the sea world renown for its citrus fruit. The mediterranean sun and microclimate produce sweeter, juicer lemons.