Yuzu taste

[ilya11]

What do you think of the smell and taste of Yuzu fruits?

[Deleted]

Yuzu has a pleasant very aromatic fragrance, and the fruits have many culinary uses, but it's not a fruit for out of hand eating. However, I personally would forage on just a few Yuzu fruits on a nature hike, or would eat them in a survival situation. There is certainly nothing unbearable in the flavor like there is with poncirus.

I find the fragrance of Yuzu is like a mix of sour orange, lemon, Satsuma mandarin and regular mandarin, but also something pungently deep and spicy about the fragrance. Yuzu has been used as an ingredient in some perfumes, and for appropriate reason.

The fruits themselves are loaded with lots of large sized seeds, which doesn't leave much room for much juice, and the pulp of the fruits I tried were a little dry, but there was nothing wrong with the flavor, other than being very sour. The peel/skin of Yuzu is also a bit more tender and less bitter than the skin of lemon, I can even manage to enjoy taking a few little bites out of the Yuzu peel/skin. (But keep in mind the fruits I tried were picked fresh off the tree and very ripe)

[david]

I feel that yuzu is disgusting as far as tasts goes. I would rather drink kerosene. It is not worth my time to grow as it taste so rank.

[millet]

Years ago I had a Yuzu tree, It had very little juice but ton of seeds. After growing it for a couple years, I determined it was not worth the effort and tossed it out.

[speedyturtle]

The important part of Yuzu is the Peel. It is best for food ingredient. It doesn't taste good when you just eat it like other fruit.

[david]

Bottom line.....there are so much better citrus to cook with. Give me a good lime any day. Yuzu is not fit to eat out of hand.....might as well eat a sour, seed filled, no juice and tongue twisting sour orange fruit. The aftertaste is hard to get rid of. This is my personal opinion. I am sure that other opinions vary.

[brian]

For cooking Thai dishes that call for Kaffir lime I've realized that *any* lime leaf works fine, or even better in my opinion, than Kaffir. I think the Kaffir taste is too bitter, and Bearss lime leaves work better. I don't pick them out of the cooked food, I eat them.

I still want to try Yuzu and Sudachi... but not enough to grow them yet. I hate the spicy taste of Rangpur lime so I expect I won't like Yuzu either.

[Sylvain]

I am curious to know the country origin of the ones who vote "disgusting" and "excellent".
I suspect that we don't speak of the same plant.
For example saying "after taste" is very strange for me. The yuzu we have in Europe has no after taste.
The juice is a little sweet and a little acidic with a kind of orange taste, no after taste.

The real problem is that you get a tea spoon per fruit and a pound of seeds.

Any way we use the zest...

[david]

Hi Syl
Country is USA. Louisiana to be exact. My yuzu grows outside. Budwood came from ccpp. I have never developed a tolerance for the juice, zest or odor. God bless those that like it, but count me out.😁

[speedyturtle]

The reason for me to like it is for ingredient. I like to make honey Yuzu tea. It is the best drink during the winter season.

[david]

Well...I have not a closed mind about this. Perhaps I have a yuzu that is sub par? Change my mind. I have lots of room on my tree. If you have yuzu that you feel is good....tighten me up with budwood and I shall give it another shot. I am always open to experiments...........

[speedyturtle]

I don't have budwood to share. I got my yuzu seeds from a forum member 2 months ago and they are sprouting.

[david]

That too will work. From seed it will take a while but....things are just what they are.....good luck with them sprouts.

[till]

My Yuzu is a quite tiny glashouse plant. But I like the taste of the fruits. No aftertaste, not even bitterness, just like a lemon with some mandarin flavor in it. Rind was not especially tasty but also not very bitter like the rind of mandarins. I did though not understand that some are so font of Yuzu taste. For me, it is good but no must have for higher cuisine. Perhaps my growing conditions in Germany are not good enough? I don't know. The fruits at least get ripe before winter and the plant stops growing early enough to harden off.

[Florian]

I have finally had the first fruit on my own plant and I must say they are indeed excellent. I cannot see how anybody would describe the taste as disgusting or like kerosene. Those must be very different plants.