Yep, its sounds crazy I know. Who the hell has ever heard of a yellow lime? Typically the color yellow is reserved only for lemons. The general consensus with yellow limes is “they are starting to go bad”. This could not be further from the truth. A fully ripened lime has a flavor that closely resembles a Meyer lemon.
Although we think of green limes as the fruit’s Platonic form, it’s not. Green limes are, in fact, under ripe. When allowed to fully ripen on the tree, they turn pale yellow.
But since we’re so accustomed to seeing green limes at the supermarket, light green and yellow-ish limes can seem suspect. The truth is that when you see a partially yellow lime, it’s yellow for one of two reasons: Either it’s ripe and less acidic (hooray!) or other fruits or leaves blocked its sunlight while it was still on the tree. (How can you tell which is which? Ripe limes are pale green or yellow and relatively uniform in color, as opposed to limes with spots of yellow here and there, which indicate that those areas of the fruit were shaded from sunlight as it was growing.)
WHAT DO YELLOW LIMES TASTE LIKE?
Karen Beverlin of Fresh Point, who works closely with Southern California farmers and is a bit of a produce whisperer, loves a yellow lime, especially a variety like Bearrs that’s ridiculously juicy when yellow and ripe. “A ripe [yellow] lime is to a regular lime as a Meyer lemon is to a regular lemon,” she explains. It has all the limey flavor, but less acidity.
You can catch the rest of Tommy Werner’s article on Epicurious
Photo source: Just Wendy Jo
