The first time Kathlyne Ross tried yuzu, she says she was “changed forever.”
As vice-president of product development and innovation at LoblawTM Companies Ltd., Ross is used to exploring new ingredients. And after just one taste of the incredibly rare, honey-tart citrus fruit, she knew it was the perfect flavour for the coming summer.
Yuzu is thought to have originated in China, but it’s more commonly associated with Japan today, where its outstanding, incomparable aroma infuses any number of foods, including ponzu—a blend of soy sauce and yuzu juice—candies and more. Yet even those who have heard of yuzu likely haven’t been able to try it, at least not recently. It’s rarely grown on this side of the world, so for most people, their only exposure may have been through food magazines and fancy restaurants.
That’s something Ross wanted to change.
Often described as a cross between a lemon, lime and an orange, yuzu is quite sour and not really meant for eating as-is. If you’ve never heard of it, you can likely get your head around “what a fruit flavour like this could be,” says Ross—that it’s a mash-up of all the best parts of the citrus family. “We're just introducing people to the next level of citrus.”
Product developers can’t just take a taste of something outstanding and leave it be. The wheels started spinning. “We asked ourselves, ‘what do we make with this amazing little citrus fruit?’ Next thing you know, we developed eight different products that contain yuzu.”