A Delicious Kalamansi Lime Beverage
This Kalamansi limeade drink is a “Delicious Beverage.” One of those idiosyncratic sayings in our household. Always said with a snickering smile and a bit of love. And its use is reserved for those drinks we really love.
Kalamansi Limeade Drink
Every once in a while, all the neighbors in our cul-de-sac pull the grills into the circle and have a little gathering. A couple years ago, at one of these occasions, a neighbor boy from down the street joined the festivities. A cute 10 year old, skater/surfer kid. Blond, freckled, nicely tan, and with a permanent state of dishevel.
Evidently no one told him it was BYOB, cause after piling up a plate of burgers, dogs, and chips, he comes up to us, with the most innocent of voices, “Excuse me, where are the beverages?” That proper tone coming from such a minion almost had us rolling. Too-damn-cute. Being we only had alcoholic beverages on hand, we replied, “Back at your house!” Can’t let ’em start mooching the hooch. But ever since then, the term “beverage” has been endeared in our household.
Growing Kalamansi Tree
One of our rarer citruses in the garden (at least rare in the U.S.), and certainly one of the most exceptional, is our Kalamansi tree. Sort of like a super floral, heavenly, round shaped kumquat, the kalamansi is one of the citrus most people visiting our garden have never experienced. Unless they are Filipino or Vietnamese. Then they just get all giddy and we have to watch them for the rest of the evening to make sure they don’t pick the tree bare.
Like most of the citrus we grow, our favorite use of these little orbs is for beverages. Occasionally in a cocktail, if we happen to have sugar cane, a little kalamansi squeezed into the fresh sugar cane juice is absolutely divine. But one of the best ways we’ve found to highlight the kalamansi is to simply make a kalamansi-ade. Fresh kalamansi juice. Simple syrup. Water. Quite a delicious kalamansi limeade drink.
-Todd
Check out our Cocktail Recipes Here and our Complete Whiskey Guide. 
Kalamansi-ade Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups (480ml) Water
- 1/3 cup (80ml) Simple Syrup , or to taste *recipe follows
- 1/4 cup (60ml) fresh Kalamansi Juice
Instructions
- Make the simple syrup if you don't already have on hand. Allow to cool to at least room temperature before making the Kalamansi-ade.
- Combine all ingredients together (water, simple syrup, and kalamansi juice). Stir well. Serve over ice.
Notes
- 2 cups (480ml) Water
- 2 cups (400g) Sugar
- Combine water and sugar in a medium saucepan. Heat until sugar is completely dissolved. Set aside to cool. After cool, store in refrigerator until ready to use.
Sounds delicious!! I’ve got calamondin tree now at home and while searching for some ideas what to do with the fruits I came across your recipe 🙂
I have always loved this fruit. When I was little, I used to eat them. I used to have a contest with my next door neighbor, David, to see who could eat them without making a face. I grew up in FL. I live in CT now and am moving to Ecuador soon, so I am going to find a Calamondin tree to plant when I get there. Thanks, for bringing back a great childhood memory. I am retirement age now.
I live in Guatemala, and when I was little, there was this huge Calamondin tree at the house next to us. The tree would bear fruit usually in October or November and I would love to get the Calamondin fruit, peel off the skin, and eat it with salt! Nowadays, that I am a chef, I realize how wonderful this fruit is, both visually and flavor-wise. Recently got a small Calamondin tree from a customer, and I am so excited to take care of it to see it grows into a huge tree! Really love your photographs! And I would like to add them on my FBpage, and of course, I would give the credits to your website.
Good luck with growing your tree. The calamondin’s are such a special little citrus. Thanks for sharing and crediting. And for the sweet compliments.
T & D
We live in Hawaii and inherited a kalamansi tree when we bought our house last year. Our real estate agent is Filipino, so she was quite excited to discover we had a tree. We have lots of fruit on our tree right now and your recipe was just a perfect way to enjoy them. I’ve also substituted the juice in a key lime pie recipe and we like them in our gin and tonics.
I sooo love this post about kalamansi! It’s very common here in the Philippines and it makes me feel proud to have tasted it(but when it’s still green). I remember my mother would teach me to cut just at the top and not in the middle so we won’t have acrid bitter taste. We also use it for cooking or even for whitening dark spots in the body like the elbow.
And did you know that kalamansi helps the body to be alkalized? it is when drinking pure kalamansi early in the morning without mixing it in water and stomach is still empty. This helps the body to be more healthy and your immune system to be stronger!
Thank you for the nice photos and recipe! I love following your blog!
Oh wow! Finally someone recognizes the mighty kalamansi (and spells it the Filipino way too!). We usually use kalamansi here in the Philippines when it is still green. This is the first time I’ve seen an all-orange calamansi! :0
We will definitely be all giddy (being Filipino)! I love Kalamansi, and even if it is widely available here (in the Philippines), it never loses its charm for me. And YES, although I use it in a million things, I agree that the absolute best way to have it is a simple Kalamansi juice! LOVE! 🙂
Side note… they grow very well in Florida. I have even found them at Home Depot, believe it or not! They are called “calamondin” in English though 😉