Rose’s Lime Juice

Also known as “Rose’s lime juice cordial”,“Rose’s West India Sweetened Lime Juice”,“Rose’s lime cordial”,“Rose’s Sweetened Lime Juice”. Proprietary non-alcoholic sweet syrup flavored with lime juice or extract and/or artificial flavorings. Note that contemporary product varies in sweetness and composition somewhat in different markets, as does the labeling. In the mid-20th Century this was a Caribbean product made on Dominica, where limes grown on Rose’s Plantation were juiced by granite rollers, then mixed in barrels with sugar and bespoke flavorings. Today Rose’s is made in Mexico from lime concentrate sweetened with corn syrup. While today’s Rose’s isn’t exactly artisanal, it’s still the best off-the-shelf call for the Suffering Bastard, Happy Buddha, etc.—it performs correctly in these drinks. For the corn syrup-averse, please see the from-scratch lime syrup instructions in the lime syrup entry. Lime syrup is a cooked syrup consisting of water, sugar and fresh-squeezed lime juice. (For the uncooked form, see lime oleo-saccharum.) Various techniques can be employed for clarification if required. Commercial preparations are widely available, often with added green food coloring. The original process was developed by Lauchlin Rose in 1867 and commercialized as Rose’s Lime Juice Cordial specifically to capitalize on the mandatory citrus rations required on ships of the era to prevent scurvy. Rose’s Lime Juice remains the de facto standard, although today it is a high fructose corn syrup-based, artificially-flavored, mass-produced commodity product. Like the original Rose’s—before it became so artificial—the best cordials derived from fruit juice are build from clarified juice. That said, here is a shortcut from-scratch recipe from cocktail writer David Allan: LIME CORDIAL (yields 18 oz): Wash 12 limes in warm water to remove wax. Let dry. Place 1-1/2 cups sugar in a bowl. Zest the limes over bowl with a vegetable peeler. Muddle the zest into the sugar with a muddler. Let sit for 30 minutes. Juice the limes and measure out 12 ounces of juice. Add the 12 ounces of juice to the sugar mixture in the bowl, and stir until sugar is dissolved. Cover and store in the refrigerater overnight. Strain & bottle. (Lasts 1 month, refrigerated.)