I wanted to note this concise article on acid-adjusting juices:
The article includes this handy reference table:
The ratios below are all measurements of citric and/or malic acid powder to one liter of juice.
Grapefruit to lemon: 40 grams citric acid powder
Grapefruit to lime: 27 grams citric acid powder and 13 grams malic acid powder
Orange to lemon: 52 grams citric acid powder
Orange to lime: 32 grams citric acid powder and 20 grams malic acid powder
Pineapple to lemon: 52 grams citric acid powder
Pineapple to lime: 32 grams citric acid powder and 20 grams malic acid powder
As the article mentions, Existing Conditions practices acid adjusting a lot. Dave Arnold also covers the topic in a more roundabout manner in Liquid Intelligence.
Alas, it’s pretty hard to scale this down for the home bartender. Gram accurate scales are cheap, but precision is probably less than 0.1 g. You have to be willing to squeeze at least several ounces of juice to keep this practical.
I love acid adjustments for swapping in modern cocktails, but I’ve a question I’d love to hear some of the proper historians on this forum weigh in on–for grapefruits, is there any reliable historical source for the pH of varietals more popular in, for instance, pre-revolution Cuba?
I’ve done some sleuthing and seen the evolution of varietals grown in various regions based on the ever sweetening American palate, but cannot seem to find a good survey of relative acids in the varietals that would have been more common when drinks like the Hemingway Daiquiri were first formulated. I would love to acid adjust a modern grapefruit to match its more ancient brethren and take a step closer to my never ending quest to make the perfect Hemingway Daq.
On another note, I have had some fun acid adjusting juices in the past, but find that once the acid adjustment has taken place that the juice has more character of the destination juice than the original. I would love to have an orange juice that had the kick of lime but when I have used the above mentioned ratios in the past (stolen from ExCon’s chalkboard) I ended up with what, to my palate, was an orange colored lime juice. I have not done extensive testing in adjusting flavor profiles, but would be interested to see if anyone thinks that using orange essences or bitters could create an end product that had the acid kick of lemon or lime but more of the essential flavor profile of orange.
There are a few sources for local histories, and John McPhee’s wonderful Oranges from 1967 has a great deal of info on the history of the eponymous fruit, but I’ve not been able to find anything that has an adequate mix of biochemistry and history.
My educational and research background is on the biochemical side, and I could point you to a few biological histories of various citruses, and a couple of state sponsored (usually Florida) surveys of various species and their abundance and locales if that would be helpful. But I’ve not come across any solid data for the relative acid concentrations present in various species.
There was a research botanist in Florida in the mid 20th century, Dr. Julia Morton, who wrote an extensive survey of fruit called Fruits of Warm Climates. I’ve pulled info from it from Purdue University’s servers from time to time but it’s probably on Google Books by now. From what I recall from the history of the Cuban revolution, having nothing to do with drinks, grapefruits were not a big crop in Cuba until fairly recently. The grapefruits in Hemingway’s drinks in Cuba may have come from Florida, or even Texas, which had an enormous grapefruit industry. They were also likely pale yellow, though could have been pale pink.
I’ve been to Cuba eight times since 2012, I’ve never – ever – seen grapefruit over there. It’s grown for export only. For Hemingway’s Daiquiris (always frozen) – when they can make them – they’re using green bitter oranges. I’ve tried to find out what they were using in the 30s but never came up with a solid answer.
This upcoming citrus season in Louisiana, I plan on juicing unripe oranges. I’ve experimented in the past, putting sugar on unripe fruit, to taste it through all the acid, and have had some good results. The unripe oranges have great character. Anyone else?
I will be hand squeezing (to incorporate the oils) and Sunkist-ing them.
The goal is to use it like lime juice. Will share results, hang tight for 5 months. Green Orange Daiquiri? Eastern Sour?
I’ve found records indicating some 120k cases going from Cuban farms bound for Havana (unlikely bound for export, as they are mentioned separately from other exported grapefruit stocks) in the late 1910s and early '20s. Slightly more than half were Marsh seedless, with Duncans being the only other varietal named in the document.
I’ve found sugar and acid analysis of Marshes and Duncan from various studies performed on fruits from Florida, Texas, and Arizona from the 1920s-1940s, but no biochemical analysis of Cuban fruits.