Where to buy Sweet Limes?

Dalkeybabe

Hi
I'm just wondering would anyone know where in Dublin I could buy Sweet Limes, these are different to the normal limes that you get in drinks here. I had them when in South India last November & wondered if I would be able to buy them here in one of the ethnic foodmarkets? Anyone got any ideas?
Thanks

Seaneh

The limes we get here, the small almost perfectly ball shaped bitter ones, are Kaffir limes and aren't really meant for eating, they certainly aren't grown to be eaten, they are a by product of Kaffir lime leaf production.

They also tend to be VERY under ripe, and a ripe kaffir lime is really gnarley and bumpy and a very dark green where as the ones here tend to be smooth and yellow/green in colour as they are picked early for shipping as if they were shipped ripe, they'd spoil before they hit the market.


I have no idea where you'd get other types of limes here, we don't really have the climate, but it's worth asking a good green grocer or even as you said, an ethnic store.

Good luck finding some!

Dalkeybabe

Seaneh, as I mentioned I'm not looking for the usual ones.
Looking for SWEET LIMES.

Still wondering if anyone knows an ethnic supermarket here that sells them?
Thanks

Minder

Seaneh wrote: »

The limes we get here, the small almost perfectly ball shaped bitter ones, are Kaffir limes and aren't really meant for eating, they certainly aren't grown to be eaten, they are a by product of Kaffir lime leaf production.

They also tend to be VERY under ripe, and a ripe kaffir lime is really gnarley and bumpy and a very dark green where as the ones here tend to be smooth and yellow/green in colour as they are picked early for shipping as if they were shipped ripe, they'd spoil before they hit the market.

You may well be getting only kaffir limes (I don't know where here is), but the common lime sold in supermarkets and used in bars to stuff into beer bottles (do bars still do that?) is a Persian lime aka Tahitian lime. It is green, juicy and seedless.

OP - Your sweet lime is also known as sweet limetta, mediterranean sweet lemon, sweet lemon, and in Iran it is called Limu Shirin and in India it is called sathukudi or mosambi. If you can find an Iranian food store, they may be able to source some for you.

Seaneh

Minder wrote: »

You may well be getting only kaffir limes (I don't know where here is), but the common lime sold in supermarkets and used in bars to stuff into beer bottles (do bars still do that?) is a Persian lime aka Tahitian lime. It is green, juicy and seedless.

OP - Your sweet lime is also known as sweet limetta, mediterranean sweet lemon, sweet lemon, and in Iran it is called Limu Shirin and in India it is called sathukudi or mosambi. If you can find an Iranian food store, they may be able to source some for you.

Feck you're right.
Why the hell did I think they were Kaffir?
And yeah, they still do that in bars with carona, the way i see it is this, if beer tastes so bad you need to stick something into it to mask the taste, why bother drinking it?

Lornen

Seaneh wrote: »

Feck you're right.
Why the hell did I think they were Kaffir?
And yeah, they still do that in bars with carona, the way i see it is this, if beer tastes so bad you need to stick something into it to mask the taste, why bother drinking it?

I heard Mexicans stuck a wedge of lime into their beers to stop flies from getting into the bottles Corona is a Mexican beer.

Mrs Fox

It could also be Calamansi, which is widely used in South East Asian cooking. They're the size of marbles, and relatively sweet.