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Limequat
Citrus × floridana · Citrus
40 pairings
The limequat is a small, frost-hardy citrus hybrid of kumquat and Key lime that looks like a slightly oversized kumquat but tastes like a thin-skinned lime — sharply sour, aromatic juice inside a thin, sweet, edible rind. Bright greenish-yellow to pale orange and only a few centimetres long, it is squeezed like a lime, eaten whole like a kumquat, candied, marmaladed and dropped into drinks, and it crops where a true lime tree would freeze.
Shop firmThe all-rounder: squeeze it like a lime, slice it into salads.Everyday best
SkinFull pale yellow-orange, the shine gone matte
WeightFirm, gives a shade under the thumb
Stem endCalyx gone, the scar dry and pale
Scratched peelFragrant when rubbed, the lime edge softer
What to look for, from tight, heavy, oil-slick to wrinkled, light, scent gone.
Keeping ittap a band
No chilling point has been measured for the limequat: Handbook 66 files it at 7-10 C, and its lime parent pits and turns tan below 7-9 C. Hold it at 10 and no colder than 8.
Humidity
85-95%
The sweet rind is half of what you eat and it dries first: left bare on a counter a limequat goes light and wrinkled within days.
Airflow
Vented, not sealed
A vented bag or an open punnet, never sealed - shut in damp they sweat at the stem scar and one wet fruit runs green mould through the box.
Flagged neither way in Handbook 66
Handbook 66 flags lemon, lime and grapefruit for ethylene damage but leaves the limequat unflagged beside them. It gives off almost none itself, and no fruit bowl will ripen one.