Many bars make dehydrated citrus wheels as garnish because they don't readily spoil and there are no leftovers if a whole fruit isn't used at the end of a night as with fresh. I have been attempting to make better-looking wheels. First I tried blanching citrus before dehydrating. This didn't make great wheels once they were dehydrated. I also candied some wheels after blanching. These were more attractive but a lot of work and now that garnish for a cocktail will have lots of sugar. In a second set of experiments I tried covering lime wheels with tonic water (because... Read more →

In a Facebook conversation about making nicer-looking dehydrated citrus wheels, Jessey Qi posted a picture; a comparison of citrus wheels on a higher heat setting in a dehydrator versus a lower one. I think the "low and slow" ones on the bottom look much better than the burned-looking ones on top. So if your food dehydrator (or oven) offers multiple settings and you can set it below 200F/95C, then that's worth a try to make fresher-looking citrus wheels for long-lasting garnishes. Read more →

Oleo Saccharum, sugar imbued with citrus oil, is typically made with peeled citrus. The peeling seems to be crucial to freeing the oils in the citrus for the sugar to pull it out - you can't just pour sugar over a whole lime and make oleo saccharum. I was curious about making oleo from the ends of citrus after making wheels - those are not typically peeled and would be very hard to peel. Also, for limes that were squeezed (as limes are hard to peel) - same situation. My thought was that if you put the citrus in the... Read more →

In many online recipes for candied citrus peels, the directions include blanching the citrus in boiling and then freezing water several times in order to "reduce bitterness and retain color." I wondered if the color-retaining properties would carry over to dehydrated citrus wheels, which are a popular way to garnish cocktails with less waste than fresh citrus wheels - as leftover wheels and partially-cut citrus would be discarded at the end of each night. Dehydrated citrus wheels often turn brown and don't taste good, so I was seeking ways to improve them. So I did an experiment: I compared dehydrated... Read more →