Franklin & Sons Yuzu Soda
Yuzu juice over sparkling water, with citrus flavourings filling out the mandarin, lime and grapefruit notes the fruit already suggests. Yuzu is one of the most aromatic citrus there is and one of the least juicy, which is why it usually arrives as a small expensive bottle rather than a fruit.
Quick Facts
Flavour Profile
Primary Flavours
Tasting Notes
Intensely aromatic rather than intensely sour, with mandarin sweetness at the front, a lime-like sharpness through the middle and a faint grapefruit bitterness on the finish.
Storage & Handling
Cool and sealed. Cold for service.
Usage
Around 100ml to 150ml over 40ml to 50ml of spirit. It is excellent with Japanese whisky and with gin, and it is one of the better mixers for a good vodka precisely because it supplies all the aroma.
What Yuzu Is
A knobbly, thick-skinned citrus about the size of a tangerine, grown in Japan for more than a thousand years. It contains very little juice for its size and a great deal of aromatic oil in the peel, which is the reverse of what a lemon offers.
That is why Japanese cooking uses it as a seasoning rather than as a fruit. A few drops of juice and a scrape of zest go into ponzu, into miso, over grilled fish. It is used in the quantities you would use a spice.
It also explains the price. Bottled yuzu juice is expensive because the fruit gives up so little of it, and a soda is a cheap way to meet the aroma.
Several Citrus at Once
Most people trying yuzu for the first time reach for comparisons and end up listing three fruits. Mandarin for the sweetness, lime for the sharpness, grapefruit for the bitter edge — it genuinely does sit between all of them.
The practical consequence is that it needs nothing else. Adding lime to a yuzu drink is the most common mistake and it flattens the distinctiveness that made the ingredient worth buying.
What to Pour Into It
Japanese whisky is the obvious pairing and it deserves the cliché. A light blended whisky lengthened with this is a highball with more going on, and the yuzu sits with the whisky rather than over it.
Gin works and juniper is a good foil for the aromatics. Vodka works better than it usually does with anything, because there is enough character in the mixer to make the drink complete on its own.
Shochu, if you have it, is the most authentic route and the easiest drinking of the three.
Garnish, or Not
Nothing is a defensible answer here. The mixer is already doing more aromatic work than most garnishes could add.
If you want something, a shiso leaf or a thin shaving of fresh ginger both belong. Citrus does not — there is enough of it in the glass already.
Pro Tip
Do not add lime. Yuzu already reads as several citrus at once — mandarin, lime and grapefruit are all in there — and adding a fourth just muddies what is a genuinely distinctive aroma.
Top Tips
- Try it with whisky before gin. Yuzu and a light blended whisky is close to a highball and considerably more interesting.
- It is the mixer that justifies a good vodka. Nothing in the glass is hiding the spirit, and nothing needs to.
- A shiso leaf or a shaving of ginger if you have one. Otherwise nothing.
Possible Substitutions
- Lemon soda with a squeeze of mandarin: the shape of it, without the aromatics
- Franklin & Sons Sicilian Lemon Tonic: sharper, and it brings quinine
History & Context
Yuzu has been grown in Japan for over a thousand years, arriving from China, and is used there far more for its peel and aroma than for its juice — in ponzu, in seasoning, and in the yuzu baths taken at the winter solstice. Its move into Western bars is recent and was driven by the same interest in Japanese ingredients that made the whisky highball fashionable.
Common Questions
What does yuzu taste like?
Like several citrus at once — mandarin sweetness, lime sharpness and a grapefruit bitterness on the finish. It is far more aromatic than it is sour, which is the opposite of a lemon.
Should I add lime?
No. Yuzu already covers that ground, and adding lime muddies the distinctiveness you bought the mixer for. It is the most common mistake with it.
What spirit works best?
A light Japanese whisky, for a highball with more going on. Gin works, and it is one of the few mixers that makes a genuinely good vodka drink, because it supplies all the character itself.
Often Used With
Guide by Jerry Can Spirits