What Is ‘Super Juice’ and How Does It Transform Citrus?

“Super juice” is an augmented lemon, lime, or other citrus juice that bartenders make in batches to use in cocktails. Its recipe results in about four to eight times the liquid volume of juice squeezed from lemons or limes, and it lasts for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator without much flavor drift. Super, indeed. 

The method to create super juice was shared in 2020 by bartender Nickle Morris of the (since closed) bar Expo in Louisville, Kentucky. It caused a sensation in the international bartender community, as many mixologists tried to recreate, demonstrate, and weigh in on the technique in forums and videos. 

Super juice isn’t super complicated to make if you own a scale and some food-grade citric and malic acids, which are available at homebrew shops or online. Yet, it might be beyond what home bartenders want to go through when citrus is relatively inexpensive. 

Whether you make super juice or not, you may find it interesting to learn what the technique reveals about the ways that citrus impacts our cocktails. 

Citrus is a-peeling

To make super juice, peel the fruit (it works with lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit, and other citrus with slight adjustments). Add a specified amount of citric and malic acid to the peels, then blend this with water and the juice from the peeled citrus. 

Once the solid bits are strained out, you’ve got a mixture that supposedly tastes just like the fresh stuff and can last a long time without spoiling, unlike standard citrus juice that can oxidize and taste terrible after just a day or two. 

Much of the flavor that we like in citrus juice comes from the oils in the peels. These peels (and avoiding the bitter white pith on the inside as much as possible) give super juice more flavor than you’d normally get from squeezing the same citrus, and this recipe is all about increasing yield.

Limes are the most often used citrus in cocktails. They’re also the most challenging to peel and avoid the pith. Some bartenders choose not to make lime super juice because of this. Standard lime juice only requires bartenders to cut it in half and squeeze.

All about the acids

In properly balanced cocktails, the acidity of citrus juice is as important as its flavor. Lemons and limes are more acidic than oranges and grapefruit, so the two groups can’t be used interchangeably. A Margarita made with orange juice, for example, would taste sweet and flat without the sharpness that limes lend. In tropical cocktails that call for more orange, grapefruit, and other juices, the recipes usually include a small amount of lime juice to better balance the drink. 

Citrus fruits have different types and quantities of acids in them that include citric, malic, succinic, tartaric, and ascorbic (Vitamin C) acid. But the most important ones for cocktails are citric and malic, which are the two used in Morris’s super juice recipe. 

The acids used are in powder form. Depending on the type of citrus, they are sprinkled in various amounts atop the peels and left to rest for an hour or more. The powder pulls oils out of the peels, and they turn wet and a bit slimy. This step, which Morris calls “oleo citrate,” is the core of making super juice. 

The oleo citrate term comes from a similar 17th-century technique for punches called oleo saccharum. It’s the same process, but it calls for sugar instead of the powdered acids. The result is a sharp, citrusy syrup, rather than a juice.

The oleo citrate is like a juice concentrate. Throw it into a blender with water, then strain out the solids through a fine mesh strainer. The result is super juice. It can be substituted in place of fresh juice and stored in the refrigerator between uses. 

Morris’s recipe adds the juice from the peeled citrus as well, but he says that it’s more to reduce waste than as a necessary flavor component.  

We can think of super juice as containing three different parts of citrus juice that are separated, boosted, and recombined: the citrus fruit flavor, the fruit acids, and the liquid. 

Super juice adjustments and recipes

Since Morris shared his technique with the world, bartenders on sites like Reddit, YouTube, and Instagram have debated its superiority to regular juice. Many suggest adjustments, additions, and subtractions to the original. 

Some bartenders argue that the flavor isn’t true to fresh juice, while others just don’t want to peel the limes. Some suggest a different ratio or quantity of acids, and others skip the oleo citrate step and toss everything into the blender at once. Some add thickeners to the juice, like sugar or acacia powder. If you like kitchen science and experimentation, give it a try. See which recipe you prefer.