From obscurity to ubiquity, finger limes as well as their powerful citrus flavour are in so lots of of the things we eat as well as drink now. however what are they, where do they come from, as well as what’s the story with finger lime gin?

High on a plateau of the blue Mountains a couple of hours west of Sydney Australia, Lee Etherington—farmer by trade, innovator by function as well as distiller by accident—stares out over his unusual crop.

From the rows of stumpy shrub-like trees dangle dark fruit that look a bit like fingers. better up, their bumpy eco-friendly as well as deep dark red peel a lot more resembles the skin of a lime.

Indeed, these are finger limes—one of six citrus fruits native to Australia—and one that has ended up being exceptionally prominent in recent years.

Lee reaches into the branches as well as plucks a finger lime, which in reality looks a lot more like a bloated chilli or an okra than a finger, as well as snaps it open as well as squeezes gently.

Inside is not what you’d expect.

Neither seeds nor juice—nor bones for that matter—lurk within. as well as rather than the segments you expect in citrus fruit; finger lime flesh is packaged in small spheres like salmon roe.

In fact, the fruit is commonly referred to as finger lime ‘caviar’. These bright eco-friendly as well as red beads are bursting with tart, tasty citrus juice. as well as they’re a revelation.

Finger limes, hibiscus as well as Lee Etherington

Lee’s very first success was really with hibiscus flowers. He established the method for putting the flowers into jars as well as preserving them in bright red syrup. We utilized his hibiscus flowers in our mixed drink book when we very first started Mr & Mrs romance so lots of years ago.

Lee even broke into the specifies with this product as well as now offers his creations in over 50 countries around the world.

But with finger limes, Lee made a decision he wished to craft a gin that made the most of this unusual caviar-shaped fruit. other distilleries have finger lime caviar in their bottles, however since the fruit is heavier than the spirit, the beads just clear up at the bottom of the bottle.

After ten years—yes, ten years—of R&D, Lee has come up with a method utilizing a protein from a lotus that produces a type of web inside the gin. It’s flavourless, colourless, odourless as well as is totally natural, however it holds up the bit spheres of finger lime, appearing to suspend them throughout the liquid.

It indicates you can truly see the finger lime caviar perfectly, however it likewise indicates every pour ensures some finger lime pieces—not just whoever gets to the end of the bottle.

What’s more, Lee made a decision the gin needed something extra—another flavour profile. So he soaks the finger lime caviar in a totally separate gin for the fruit to take in those flavours before they go into the bottle. Effectively, you’re getting two gins in one.

And since Lee doesn’t like to stop for extremely long, he’s created one more fingerlime gin utilizing the deep red finger limes too.

The issue with finger limes

It would be great news to discover that farming finger limes was an simple occupation, wouldn’t it.

Sadly, that’s not the case.

As Lee describes as we walk round the orchard, the trees are covered in long, sharp thorns, which makes hand-picking unpleasant. however since the fruit is rather delicate, maker harvesting isn’t an option.

We’re right here at Lee’s farm with the exceptional Nip of guts crew!

Finger lime skin is full of bitter oils that, if mixed with the fruit, ruins the flavour. The oils are likewise extremely sticky as well as don’t come off your skin quickly either.

What’s more, finger limes—especially the red ones—like to ripen all at once. Lee paints the photo of everybody dashing into the orchard in an effort to pick as lots of ripe fruit as they can, all on the exact same day. After that, the fruit is commonly past it.

And just to add an additional layer of difficulty, each finger lime is likewise full of small seeds, which requirement to be eliminated before they can be processed.

But the deadly icing on this specific cake is the land right here is a much-loved area for one of the world’s a lot of hazardous spiders.

The extremely venomous as well as aggressive Sydney funnel-web spider, which has a bite so powerful it can quickly pierce your thumbnail with its fangs, likes to online in burrows in soft soil.

And there are telltale holes actually anywhere on the orchard floor.

But when you take that very first sip of the most excellent gin as well as tonic you’ve ever had, bubbling with bit balls of finger lime as well as bursting keeping that effervescent lime flavour, you realise all the research study as well as difficult work, all the thorny pain as well as danger of death has been worth it.

You can pick up your bottle of WildHibiscus Co Finger Lime Gin here.

You must likewise inspect out our full evaluation of this gin right here on our routine column with hero to Australian craft spirits Nip of Courage.