Yuzu is a Japanese citrus fruit with a delicious smell and taste that is hard to describe, but is at once both sweet and bitter, bringing together the taste of lime and green mandarin or grapefruit and a sour lemon.
While Yuzu has been revered in Japanese cuisine for centuries, it is now becoming increasingly sought after by customers and used in western cuisine by chefs, thanks to its versatility and ability to work well in both sweet and savoury dishes.
A unique and versatile flavour profile
Fresh Yuzu is not usually eaten raw because of its strong tart, sour taste – instead, the zest, peel, and juice of Yuzu is used to flavour a wide variety of foods.
Yuzu juice is used in marinades and sauces and can be sweetened to flavour desserts, beverages, cocktails and alcohols, added to a ponzu sauce, or mixed with honey to sweeten teas.
The peel and zest of Yuzu fruit are used in preserves and sweets and can also be dried and used in soup stocks and spice mixes. The pith and the seeds are extremely high in pectin and can be used to thicken preserves like jam or jelly.
In western cuisine Yuzu is also used to flavour salad dressings, glazes, jellies, sweet curds and cheesecakes.
How can you use Yuzu to flavour your food products?
Fresh Yuzu can be very hard to find as not many farmers grow it and it is very prickly to pick with thorns of up to 7cm long. It’s also tricky to juice and extract the flavour from as Yuzu fruit are full of seeds.
While bottled Yuzu juice is commercially available but usually only lasts for 4 weeks once opened.
AFIS has developed our AFIS Yuzu Flavour to provide food manufacturers with an easy, affordable and long-lasting way to add the flavour of Yuzu to products, even when Yuzu fruit is out of season or impossible to source.
This clear yellow to very pale brown liquid with a fragrant citrus flavour and aroma can be used as a flavour/fragrance ingredient in beverages, baking, sauces and dairy products.
Made in Australia from local and imported ingredients, AFIS Yuzu Flavour is available in 25L tamper evident high density polyethylene containers, with a shelf life of 12 months if kept tightly sealed in a cool place with limited head space, protected from light.
If you’d like to try our AFIS Yuzu Flavour for yourself, take a look at our delicious recipe for Yuzu Curd, that can be used in place of a lemon or lime curd.
To find out more about our AFIS Yuzu Flavour and how you can use it to add the exciting and intriguing taste of Japanese citrus to your food products, get in touch with the team at AFIS today.
