Sweet limetta (Lumia)

Citrus limetta · Citrus

40 pairings

The limetta, or Mediterranean sweet lemon, is a pale, low-acid citrus grown around the Mediterranean and across the Middle East for eating fresh and juicing. Lemon-shaped and yellow-skinned but almost free of sourness, it tastes gently sweet, soft and faintly floral — a lemon with the tartness turned off. In Iran it is the beloved limu shirin; in Italy the ornamental, gnarled forms are known as lumia; in the Levant it is a everyday sweet lemon, pressed for a mild, refreshing juice reputed to be soothing and easy on the stomach.

Picking a good onedrag

Heavy, smooth-rinded, tree-freshLight, slack, rind dulling

Shop freshThe everyday fruit: eat out of hand, or juice it.Buy it

HeftSolid, the rind gives a shade under thumb

RindEven pale yellow, matte but tight

Stem endCalyx gone, the scar dry and pale

Scratched peelSoftly fragrant, but you scratch for it

What to look for, from heavy, smooth-rinded, tree-fresh to light, slack, rind dulling.

Keeping ittap a band

A domestic fridge holds it about 2× longer than the counter.

Humidity

85-90%

That thin rind leaks fast: left bare on a counter the peel wrinkles inside a fortnight and the flesh goes dry and cottony.

Airflow

Ventilated, not sealed

A loose or slit bag, never shut tight — with so little acid to hold fungi off, green mould starts at the stem scar within days.

Colours the rind, never sweetens it

It makes almost none itself, but other fruit's ethylene strips the green from the peel and hurries stem-end decay: keep it off the apple and banana shelf.

Preparing