Cocktails with Lime juice
Lime juice is the sour, acidic juice squeezed from fresh limes, used as the souring citrus in countless cocktails.
Substitutes for Lime juice
Lemon pours one for one here, giving a rounder, less resinous sour; unsweetened bottled lime also works at the full measure if the aroma is not the point. Sourness is easy to match: another citrus brings much the same acid, and citric and malic acid in water bring it with no smell at all. What does not transfer is the green, resinous aroma a daiquiri is built on, so treat a swap as a different drink and not the same one repaired.
Often confused with
Bottled lime juice
Pasteurized or preserved, with the fresh aroma gone and often a bitter note in its place, and in a daiquiri it shows at once: the acid is there and the smell is not.
Key lime
Smaller, more floral and more acidic, with more seeds and less juice per fruit; worth it in a pie and rarely worth the labour in a shaker.
Storage
Juice to order. Refrigerated it holds acidity for a day or two and the aroma goes first. Whole limes keep two or three weeks chilled, and they yield more juice warm, so bring out what the shift needs an hour ahead.
