What is Japanese Yuzu? A Yuzu Cocktail Recipe
This yuzu cocktail recipe was one of our first recipe posts back in 2009. It’s fun to see how our photography and garden stories have changed over the years!
What is Yuzu?
Don’t feel bad if you have never heard of this beautiful little citrus, since outside of a few Asian cuisines and particularly in Japanese cultural circles it is seldom grown or used, however we’re here to tell you that yuzu is pure culinary gold.
Yuzu is a sour, tart and very fragrant citrus, slightly smaller than a billiard ball. Yuzu is a citrus that isn’t eaten straight, but is used as a souring ingredient through the use of it’s juice and zest. The flavor is reminicent somewhere between a classic Eureka lemon and an oro blanco grapefruit, but still has its own unique fragrance and flavor. It is a bit more floral and sour and utterly wonderful. It smells so good the Japanese will use yuzu for perfumes and will ritualistically bath in yuzu during Toji (winter solstice). Read all about yuzu citrus on our yuzu info page here.
Yuzu Cocktail Recipe
Diane had requested yuzu recipe ideas from readers and there were several fantastic ideas, however I already knew how I wanted to use our first born yuzu. A cocktail, of course. We kept the ingredients simple so the yuzu could be highlighted and not overwhelmed by the alcohol and since there isn’t much juice per yuzu, but the rind is so aromatic, we muddled a whole yuzu in order to get the most out of it. The result: pure deliciousness. There will be upcoming recipes featuring the yuzu, but for now we raise our glasses and toast to one of our favorite lumpy garden orbs: Yuzu!
More posts about Japanese Lemons: Yuzu & Kabosu:
- What is Yuzu? Why is Yuzu so prized?
- What is Kabosu? differences between Kabosu and Yuzu
- Refreshing Yuzu Sherbert Recipe
- Our Sauteed Peas with Yuzu Kosho Recipe
Yuzu Cocktail
Ingredients
- 1 whole Yuzu (or @ 1 1/2 Tablespoons yuzu juice)
- 2 ounces (60ml) Gin (preferable Hendricks)
- couple dashes Vanilla Extract , optional
- 1/2 ounce (15ml) Simple Syrup , or to taste
- dash of orange bitters , optional
- 2 ounces (60ml) club soda
Instructions
- Squeeze the yuzu directly into the cocktail shaker (helps capture the most oils from the zest). Add a 1/4 of the squeezed rind into the shaker. Add the gin, vanilla extract (optional), simple syrup, and optional bitters to the cocktail shaker. Add ice & shake for 15-20 seconds.
- Place ice into an old-fashion glass, strain the cocktail over the ice, top with club soda, and gently stir. Garnish if desired.
Nutrition Information per Serving
Check out our Cocktail Recipes Here
- our Complete Whiskey Guide.
- Holiday drinks and appetizers
- White Lady Classic Cocktail
- Kiwi Margarita
- Here’s more yuzu recipes to try.
Wow, what a great cocktail. Absolutely refreshing.
Hi guys,
Casual fan here. Made some of your chicken wing recipes way back when. Found this looking for good yuzu recipes. It was good. Three comments:
I used an ounce of Monin yuzu puree instead of your suggestions. It’s weird, but the easiest way to get yuzu is in puree form these days.
I skipped the vanilla extract. Never missed it.
The orange bitters didn’t add anything either. Subbed them out for grapefruit bitters to good results. But really the drink worked best with no bitters at all.
I forwarded a link to this recipe to a drink web site too. Don’t know if they’ll use it but it can’t hurt.
Good recipe overall. Nice flavor combo with gin. Keep up the good work.
Hi Jan, Thanks for reaching out and we appreciate your readership over the years. Also, thanks for all the great insight and for sharing!
My favorite use of yuzu is with alcohol. The next would be as a salad dressing ingredient. However, one of the best uses not discussed on this page is in the bath. Sometimes Japanese onsen (hot spring resort type establishments) have special yuzu bath days. Also, yuzu ripen during cold season, and chucking some yuzu juice into a hot drink is often nice.
Hello, again! I am researching yuzu for the garden, and my search led me back to your site. Replies to comments are also useful. Thanks!
Hello! I really like your yuzu picture (the second one shown in your blog) and would like to use it in a short Japanese food brochure for a fair. Would it be possible to use it?
Any tricks for getting a yuzu tree to flower? I’m in the SF bay area, and bought a yuzu tree last year. The fruit that was already on it ripened beautifully. But the tree has been very quiet since, with no budding activity. Should it have already flowered this year? Anything I can do to make it wake up? I’d love some more of those yuzu.
My yuzu tree is now full of tiny yuzu babies, and shooting up another 12″ of growth. Could be a great year for yuzu. I love my yuzu tree. Thanks for the inspiration.
We’ve had the same sort of problem. Lost of fruit one year, none the next. Going into our third year we are doubling up on a trick which a Japanese gardener taught us, to tightly tie some string around the branches to “choke” them a bit. It will cause a bit of stress on the plant and they will sometimes flower to put out some next of kin.
That plus we are fertilizing more this year, being that citrus in general really like being fed a lot.
Good luck.
I live in Orangeburg SC (named for the Duke of Orange, not the fruit) which is upper zone 8. I have two own-root Yuzu’s and one young, grafted onto trifoliate orange. I had more Yuzu’s this year than I knew what to do with. We make Yuzu cake, use the Yuzu’s in a vinaigrette, and I tried to make scallops in Yuzu, (Hotate Yuzu Kama-yaki) I had to follow lots of advice on how to make substitutes for mirin, but I found a Korean market in Columbia, SC that had white miso. My problem is the mixture was way too salty. The saltiness way overpowered the scallops. The fundamental problem was the miso, even diluted with mirin and sake. Any suggestions as to what’s the deal here?
CitrusinSC-
That’s awesome you’ve got the yuzu overflowing! We’ve never had Hotate Yuzu Kama-yaki before so aren’t really sure what the taste is supposed to be or how salty a well prepared dish is. One thing about miso is that is does vary quite a bit between makers. We checked out the recipe at Bento.com and they are using red miso which is usually even a bit saltier than white, so it may just be a saltier dish. A couple people who are way more knowledgeable than us about Japanese cuisine would be Harris at Japanese Food Report and Eric at The Breakaway Cook.
Last night I was already craving some good Japanese cooking (spent the wee hours soaking in Japanese cookbooks) and now I am feeling like an addict going through withdrawals. Good luck on the scallops. If we discover any answers, we’ll make sure to pass them on.
I have some pictures of the Yuzu with fruit from a month or so ago, if you are interested.
In the Pacific Northwest, One Green World (onegreenworld.com) also carries Yuzu trees for only $24.95/tree. The variety is Ichandrin. Best of all, they are advertised as hardy in the Pacific Northwest–all the way to zone 7.
Britton- thank you for the great info! One Green World and four wind growers sound like amazing nurseries.