Lemon

Lotus Fruit Ingredients can offer wonderful single strength lemon juice and lemon juice concentrate from Sicily, and cloudy and clarified Lemon Juice Concentrate from Argentina.

Lemon, like salt, accentuates the other flavours in food; too much lemon will make it citrusy, like too much salt will taste salty. The lemon belongs to the citrus family. Its key profile descriptors therefore include, buttery, citrus, floral, fruity, green herbal, sharp, spicy and sulfury. Their citric acid content of 5-6% gives them a tart, sour taste, but they have a complex and layered flavour profile including notes of bitterness and astringency. A subtle sweetness is also present thanks to the existence of natural sugars, which balances out the sourness.

The Citrus lemon originated from northeastern India and northern Burma before spreading to Europe in the 16thC via Italy. Like oranges, Europeans introduced lemons to the Americas, where Argentina is now the largest volume grower for processing (primarily lemon juice concentrate and lemon oil).