Lime Juice
Lime juice is the tart, acidic juice pressed from fresh limes, prized in cocktails for its sharp citrus bite and aromatic zest. Fresh-squeezed juice is markedly brighter than bottled alternatives, which lose aromatic oils over time. It is one of the most common souring agents across many cocktail styles.
Common uses
- souring agent in shaken cocktails
- balances sweet syrups and liqueurs
Buying & storage
A few days: Fresh lime juice starts changing within an hour and is noticeably duller by the next day — the bright top notes go first, leaving flat acidity.
Buying: squeeze fresh limes just before use rather than relying on bottled juice for the best aroma
Storage: best used within 24 hours of squeezing, refrigerate in a sealed container
In depth
Understanding lime juice
How it is made, where it comes from, what it pairs with, and how it behaves in an alcohol-free drink.
How it's made
There is no production process worth describing, only a deadline: lime juice starts changing within about fifteen minutes of squeezing and tastes noticeably cooked and flat within a day. Bottled lime juice is pasteurised, which is exactly the flavour change fresh juice is trying to avoid.
Origin
Limes reached European and American bars through Caribbean and Mexican cultivation; their fixed place in drinks owes as much to the Royal Navy's nineteenth-century use of citrus against scurvy — the origin of the term 'limey' — as to any bartender.
What it pairs with
Pairs with almost everything: rum, tequila, gin, ginger, mint, coconut, tropical fruit. The one caution is dairy, which it curdles — so it goes in last, or not at all.
In alcohol-free drinks
- The single most important ingredient in alcohol-free drink-making — acidity is what replaces alcohol's dry finish
- Alcohol-free recipes generally want more of it than their alcoholic equivalents, because there is no spirit offsetting the sugar
Before it goes
Use up lime juice
Ranked by how much of it each drink uses and how little else it needs — the ones at the top will not send you back to the shop.
- Kamikaze
Uses 30ml. Also needs vodka, triple sec.
- Margarita
Uses 25ml. Also needs tequila blanco, triple sec.
- Naked and Famous
Uses 25ml. Also needs mezcal, aperol, yellow chartreuse.
- Rum Swizzle
Uses 25ml. Also needs dark rum, gold rum, falernum, angostura bitters.
Recipes
Cocktails containing this ingredient
Ginger Lime Fizz
Ginger beer, lime and soda over ice with mint — a spicy, fizzy CocktailHQ original.
Bacardí Cocktail
White rum, lime and grenadine, shaken cold — a Daiquiri with a pink, pomegranate-sweetened twist.
Tommy's Margarita
Tequila, lime and agave syrup — no triple sec — a cleaner, more agave-forward take on the Margarita.
Three Dots and a Dash
Dark and gold rum shaken with citrus, falernum and allspice dram — a spiced tiki classic named for its Morse-code cherry garnish.
Kombucha Mule
Ginger kombucha and lime over ice — a tangy, faintly funky alcohol-free take on the Moscow Mule format.
Sparkling Cranberry Mocktail
Tart cranberry juice lengthened with soda and lime — a bright, festive-looking three-ingredient mocktail.
Cucumber Mint Cooler
Muddled cucumber and mint lengthened with lime and soda — a cool, green, alcohol-free highball.
Virgin Daiquiri
Lime and sugar blended with crushed ice to a frozen slush, finished with a splash of soda — the Daiquiri's citrus snap, without the rum.
Queen's Park Swizzle
Rum, lime, mint and sugar swizzled through crushed ice, with a float of Angostura on top.
Virgin Sea Breeze
Cranberry and grapefruit over ice — the Sea Breeze's dry, tart half, which was always the interesting part.
Lime Rickey
Lime, a little sugar and soda water — three ingredients, and the driest long drink on the site.
Raspberry Shrub Soda
Raspberry shrub lengthened with soda — sweet, sharp and genuinely complex, with vinegar doing the work alcohol usually does.
Stand-in
Where lime juice is a recommended substitute
Recipes that name it as a swap for something else, with what it replaces.
- Gimletin place of lime cordial
Swap it
Possible substitutions
Explore