lime twist

Also known as “lime peel”. A lime twist is a piece of lime rind, carefully sliced off a fresh, firm lime so as to include as little as the white, bitter pith as possible. Twists can be roughly disc-shaped or they can a longer patch-shaped cut, depending on the desired effect. The key purpose of the twist is to be pointed downward over the surface of a drink (or sometimes the empty glass before the drink is poured in) and sharply bent, so as to squeeze out the essential oils in the rind. Sometimes, this process is performed while holding a lit match or lighter between the glass and the twist so as to caramelize some of the oils and produce a small pyrotechnics display. After a twist has been squeezed, it is either discarded or dropped in the drink for decoration. Some bartenders like to wipe the twist around the lip of the glass, because some essential oils remain on the outside surface of the twist to be rubbed off on the glass. Note: lime twists can be difficult to cut due to the thinness of the rind. Consequently, lemon and orange (and grapefruit) twists are often favored. This is unfortunate, because the essential oils in fresh lime peel are beautiful. (An alternative way to extract lime essential oils is to muddle pieces of lime and then strain or remove the spent fruit..)