What does yuzu taste like?
Yuzu tastes like a mix of lemon, grapefruit and mandarin orange: very sour, intensely fragrant and a little floral, with a slightly bitter peel.
Yuzu
lemon, grapefruit and flowers
Yuzu is a small, bumpy Japanese citrus that's mostly peel and seeds, with very little juice. That juice is sour like lemon, but the real magic is the smell: floral, a little piney, and more perfumed than any lemon. Chefs use it to wake up a dish without it tasting like plain lemon: a few drops in a sauce, a little zest over fish. In sweets it's bright and fragrant. Fresh yuzu is rare and pricey in the US, so most menus use bottled juice, or yuzu kosho, a salty chili paste made with the peel.
Where you’ll see it
In ponzu sauce, on crudo and sashimi, in yuzu kosho, vinaigrettes and marinades, and in desserts like yuzu sorbet, tarts and cheesecake. Bars use it in sours, highballs and spritzes.
Order it if you like lemon but wish it were more fragrant and a bit more interesting.
Quick questions
- Is yuzu like lemon?
- It's sour like lemon, but more fragrant and floral, with grapefruit and mandarin in there too. It tastes less sharp and more perfumed.
- Can you eat yuzu like an orange?
- Not really. It's mostly seeds and thick peel, with a little very sour juice. It's used for its juice and zest.