Yuzu

[Unicyclemike]

Does anyone like the taste of Yuzu?  How would you describe the taste?  I have seen videos that show restaurants like to use it on their fish.

Mike Adams

[vnomonee]

The rind is edible and the juice is pleasant, acidic but with hints of grapefruit and even mandarin. Used in recipes or combined with sugar it's even better. The fruit is very seedy but the rest of it makes up for it if you can find a use for it.

[Unicyclemike]

Thank you for your response. Approximately how large are the fruit and do you know when they ripen?

Mike Adams

[caladri]

It depends on the variety of yuzu, they vary in size significantly. If you're thinking of buying the most common collection which is sold in the US, then about the size of a medium-large mandarin, depending slightly on growing conditions. https://citrusvariety.ucr.edu/crc1216 gives season of ripeness and size information pretty specifically. Note that while this is thought of as the only "yuzu" among commercial growers in the US, that is very much not the case in Japan (but relatively few collections have English description; and also there are things like shishiyuzu/oniyuzu which are not the same species as yuzu), and also not the case in Europe, where it seems like there's a half dozen or so collections circulating.

[vnomonee]

Yep, here's mine (assuming its the common variety in the US). Not very big but these were also the first fruits 1 year from the graft date.

[SoCal2warm]

Does anyone like the taste of Yuzu?  How would you describe the taste?

The flavor is kind of "lemon" and "lime"-like, but much more "orange" in flavor, specifically mandarin orange. The aroma is fragrant like a fragrant sour variety of orange. There is also something slightly sulfurous, almost a little reminiscent of grapefruit but a little bit different (maybe almost a small hint of guava-like aroma), and also a "spiciness" that mixes with the fragrant sour orange aroma.

Yuzu can be a really nice interesting flavor added to other things. However the fruits themselves are not really good quality.
The peel of yuzu is more tender than other citrus fruits, and the white pith beneath the peel lacks bitterness, unlike a grapefruit or lemon. (The peel is tender if you're able to get a fresh yuzu recently picked off the tree) This makes yuzu more like a citron.
Yuzu is not so valuable for its juice but rather most of the flavor is in the peel, and oils of the peel.

Yuzu is a unique flavor.

If you were trying to approximate its flavor, probably the closest thing to it would be lime juice mixed with juice from mandarin oranges. Also mixed with juice of seville orange (such as found in a Persian market) if you can find it.

[NCCitrus]

Yuzu is very unique; but it's more or less interchangeable in any recipe with a lemon/lime, in my experience.

My personal favorite things to do with it are Yuzu whiskey sours and Yuzu "key lime" pie.


The juice is readily available, if a little pricey, on Amazon. Worth a try to see if you like the flavor before investing in a tree.

[PDXIan]

To me it's Lemon/Lime/Pomelo. I think it's an amazing flavor. The oils in the rind are crazy strong.
I use the zest to make these Yuzu beers. We also make a Yuzu Hard Seltzer, I need to update the website.
https://shimai-toshi.com/

[Till]

I would not call the rind of my Yuzu edible or lets say tasty. It is too bitter. Yet aromatic. The juice makes a very good lemonade with strong complex aroma better than lemons. Hard to describe: it is sour, lemonlike, a bit of orange and grapefruit I would say. Its a pity that the fruits contain so much seeds and not much juice.

There was a long discussion about the taste of Yuzu in Citrus Growers forum: https://citrusgrowersv2.proboards.com/thread/196/yuzu-taste. Most Europeans valued Yuzu very much while Americans were mostly not positively impressed. The reason seems to be that the Yuzu varieties in Europe are not the same as in the States.

Yuzu ist more resistant to late frost in spring than poncirus although its overall hardiness is not so high.

[Zitrusgaertner]

There was a long discussion about the taste of Yuzu in Citrus Growers forum: https://citrusgrowersv2.proboards.com/thread/196/yuzu-taste. Most Europeans valued Yuzu very much while Americans were mostly not positively impressed. The reason seems to be that the Yuzu varieties in Europe are not the same as in the States.

I think there is much difference between old world culinary tradition as well as openness to new taste and preferences in the US. Yuzu-rind is not bitter at all 

[Till]

The culinary tradition may also play a role. Hard to tell to what extend.
 
The rind of my Yuzu is definitely bitter not extremly so but bitter enough that I do not really enjoy it. And I can enjoy lemon rind. I have no doubt that I have a real Yuzu. It fits the common descriptions in all other aspect. I have noticed, however, that the sensitivity to bitter taste varies greately among people and even with myself. I have tried to select my seedlings by leaf taste, an idea of Ilya. After about five seedlings I had the impression that none has bitter leave taste what was of cause wrong. I tasted a number of montain ash beeries. After a few berry I found all relatively mild although the first impression was "baah, how bitter!" [Apropos, there are really tasty varities that are definitely not bitter.]

[orangedays]

I found my yuzu somewhat bitter and sour but not the nice sour of a lemon or lime. Just sour.  It was from a potted tree and probably overloaded with fruit. So the quality may have been lacking due to too small a leaf to fruit ratio. The fruit have so many seed.  It is like PT in that respect.   I didn't think very much of it but it is supposed to be very cold hardy, so I made several crosses using yuzu as the pollen parent. I think 10degree tangerine is a yuzu hybrid and is supposed to produce good fruit.  One of the crosses was to changsha - that one should really make allot of seed!

[manfromyard]

The zest was very interesting, but there wasn't enough juice to be worth it for me...
From videos and pictures, it looks like the Japanese Yuzu tend to have less seeds and more juice.
Some reviewers even comment on the smell being different..https://youtu.be/sTfWtK4cHY4

All the ones I see in the US have more seeds, a loose rind, and are drier..

[caladri]

If you get a chance to try Kito Yuzu, I recommend it. A much more interesting flavour, distinctly juicier, and a very different texture to the ones you'll find in most of North America, at least. (Of course, there are some of us who are growing yuzu of that lineage, but citricultural practices are no doubt significant, too.)

[pagnr]

Yuzu is used extensively as a flavouring in Japan for all kinds of products from Ponzu sauces for cooking stock, to snacks and candy.
There was a one off version of Yuzu Doritos corn chips some years back as a promo, other Yuzu snack chips are available.
My local Asian grocery had cans of Yuzu soft drink for a while ( also Kabosu ). Mainly for Japanese backpacker seasonal farm workers, along with other Japanese groceries.

[vnomonee]

I'm not sure which variety of Yuzu I saw when I was in South Korea at outdoor market, they were labeled "Yuja". They were way bigger than what I have. I would buy Yujacha in jars which I'm sure came from those fruits as Yuzu grows in the southern parts of South Korea. "Cha" is tea, the fruit is preserved by making a sort of raw marmalade that you add boiling water to and then drink it.

Maangchi, a youtuber, shows how she makes the Yujacha. These are the Yuzu I saw. When she cuts the fruit in half there is more flesh inside than what I remember mine looking like. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOV-gx8Wjmc

[Peep]

There was a long discussion about the taste of Yuzu in Citrus Growers forum: https://citrusgrowersv2.proboards.com/thread/196/yuzu-taste. Most Europeans valued Yuzu very much while Americans were mostly not positively impressed. The reason seems to be that the Yuzu varieties in Europe are not the same as in the States.

I think there is much difference between old world culinary tradition as well as openness to new taste and preferences in the US. Yuzu-rind is not bitter at all 

I had the premium Yuzu from Japan and candied the peel. When I looked up the process of candying citrus peel it often said to boil the peel to remove the bitter flavor. Because I've heard sometimes that Yuzu peel is not bitter, I did not do this, as I wanted to not lose any flavor by boiling them. But the result of the Yuzu candied peel still tastes bitter. It might be less than most other citrus, I can't compare as I've only candied Yuzu for now.

[SoCal2warm]

I had the premium Yuzu from Japan and candied the peel. When I looked up the process of candying citrus peel it often said to boil the peel to remove the bitter flavor. Because I've heard sometimes that Yuzu peel is not bitter, I did not do this, as I wanted to not lose any flavor by boiling them. But the result of the Yuzu candied peel still tastes bitter. It might be less than most other citrus, I can't compare as I've only candied Yuzu for now.

Was your Yuzu fresh and the peel tender? To use the Yuzu peel, the Yuzu should be fresh and the peel bright yellow-orange in color.
If you bought your Yuzu from a market, outside of Japan, it may have been picked unripe and greenish in color.

At its best, Yuzu zest does have a tiny bit of bitterness, but less than lemon peel.

[greg_D]

Yuzu is used in a few cuisines and goes by a few different names. It's not a foolproof ingredient. When using it in cooking, I've had it be completely overpowering, and also had it be completely unnoticeable. It's one of those flavors where it's gross if it's too strong but very pleasant if it's 'just right.' Like how a charred steak is delicious but a burnt steak is disgusting. If you grow it I would recommend learning how to use it by following some recipes that incorporate it.

The peel (pith removed) has a base flavor similar to lemon, with undertones that are floral, bitter, and slightly herbaceous. The juice is like meyer lemon juice, but 'different' in a way that's hard to describe.

Here in Southern California there are some boutique suppliers of yuzu fruit that sell to Japanese grocery stores. Most of them are seemingly from seed-grown trees. These ones are not the best in terms of fruit size (roughly the size of a golf ball) and juice content. There are some grafted trees sold by small nurseries that make fruit with higher juice content and consistently large size (roughly the size of a ponkan). The flavor of these higher quality fruits isn't noticeably different from the lower quality fruits, the main difference is just fruit size and juice content.

[caladri]

I had the premium Yuzu from Japan and candied the peel. When I looked up the process of candying citrus peel it often said to boil the peel to remove the bitter flavor. Because I've heard sometimes that Yuzu peel is not bitter, I did not do this, as I wanted to not lose any flavor by boiling them. But the result of the Yuzu candied peel still tastes bitter. It might be less than most other citrus, I can't compare as I've only candied Yuzu for now.

Was your Yuzu fresh and the peel tender? To use the Yuzu peel, the Yuzu should be fresh and the peel bright yellow-orange in color.
If you bought your Yuzu from a market, outside of Japan, it may have been picked unripe and greenish in color.

At its best, Yuzu zest does have a tiny bit of bitterness, but less than lemon peel.

I would take issue with the idea that green yuzu is peculiar to inferior markets outside of Japan. Green yuzu has distinct uses to ripe yuzu in Japan, and both are available. So, too, many US growers provide both, such as Pearson Ranch, which provides the bog-standard North American yuzu line in green, greenish-yellow, and fully-ripe forms as the season progresses. They're of a decent and consistent quality, too.

[Peep]

Was your Yuzu fresh and the peel tender? To use the Yuzu peel, the Yuzu should be fresh and the peel bright yellow-orange in color.
If you bought your Yuzu from a market, outside of Japan, it may have been picked unripe and greenish in color.

At its best, Yuzu zest does have a tiny bit of bitterness, but less than lemon peel.

They were ripe and a warm yellow color: https://www.instagram.com/p/CnHbMAIDT5n/

[gordonh1]

If one has Yuzu seeds, how likely is it to reproduce the parent tree? I guess it's a question of the percentage of seeds that are nucellar vs. zygotic. And of the zygotic seeds, it's a question of the pollen source, maybe another Yuzu, but maybe not.

I received Yuzu seeds from Trade Winds and was wondering if the trees would be expected to resemble the same variety of Yuzu that is circulating in the U.S. or if there might be some genetic diversity or differences, with possibly fruits that represent some of the more diverse types of Yuzu that I've heard about that are grown in Japan.

I'm interested in the possibility of a juicier Yuzu. I read somewhere that the U.S. clone of Yuzu is a relatively dry type and juicier ones definitely exist.

[pagnr]

Yuzu seedlings are used as a rootstock in Japan. The seedlings are uniform enough for that purpose.
I have grown quite a few from seed from one original tree, and not often noticed much difference between seedlings.
As any variant types of Yuzu are probably not further hybrids, ( that doesn't include named types of Yuzu relatives ), then the other subtypes must have come from seedlings.
More than likely you would get something from seed close to the parent Yuzu, more than a leap to a different type. But it must happen to some level.

[caladri]

Per Roose and Traugh (1988), writing at UCR and thus presumably studying the CRC's yuzu accession, historical estimates are that more than 10% of yuzu seedlings (when crossed with P. trifoliata) were believed to be zygotic. There are lots of papers on the methodology used to distinguish zygotic seedlings in polyembryonic citrus using gross morphology, namely seedling height. Their study looked at established plantings to see if rootstocks which were propagated in the field, and thus, presumed by morphological selection to be nucellar, and found that they were about 25% zygotic. So if previous estimates were at most 90% nucellar, and those estimates were only 75% correct, you'd expect that to mean around 67.5% nucellar. I don't know if that's counting all embryos from each seed, because I don't know which author suggested "more than 10%" zygotic, and haven't been able to turn it up despite reading through a few dozen papers on the subject.

Fatta Del Bosco, Matranga, and Geraci (1994) suggest that using isozyme analysis, about 19.4% of yuzu seedlings appear to be zygotic. I don't know what their yuzu source was.

[BorisR]

When I looked up the process of candying citrus peel it often said to boil the peel to remove the bitter flavor.

The bitterness of citrus albedo can be removed without boiling. The sliced peel should be filled with cold water and kept in the refrigerator. Change the water once an hour or two. Before changing the water, taste the old water. If there is no bitterness, it's done. I don't remember exactly, but the bitterness from the pomelo and grapefruit peel was removed in no more than 10 water changes.