Fresh Lime
June 11, 2024 7:15 PM Subscribe
I'm reading the Miss Marple story, A Caribbean Mystery, and am currently stumped by my own mystery, what is the "Fresh Lime" she keeps ordering?
I've looked around and think it could be either a lime rickey, or just fresh lime juice squeezed into a 7up/sprite soda, but don't seem to be able to find out a definitive answer.
You can read the appropriate passage here in a recipe for a Planter's Punch, which is nice, but also not helpful to my question. A note, in my edition Fresh Lime is capitalized as if it were a drink, just like Planter's Punch is.
I've looked around and think it could be either a lime rickey, or just fresh lime juice squeezed into a 7up/sprite soda, but don't seem to be able to find out a definitive answer.
You can read the appropriate passage here in a recipe for a Planter's Punch, which is nice, but also not helpful to my question. A note, in my edition Fresh Lime is capitalized as if it were a drink, just like Planter's Punch is.
Could it be that a slice of fresh lime be used for the garnish rather than/in addition to a pineapple wedge?
posted by Bigbootay. Tay! Tay! Blam! Aargh... at 9:00 PM on June 11, 2024
posted by Bigbootay. Tay! Tay! Blam! Aargh... at 9:00 PM on June 11, 2024
Best answer: Fresh Lime in Singapore is just fresh lime juice sweetened with simple syrup and water, as in not from concentrate.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 9:56 PM on June 11, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 9:56 PM on June 11, 2024 [4 favorites]
In my haste I missed the last line: ‘Fresh lime it is,’ said Tim Kendal, ‘and five Planters Punches.’ So that is right - clearly the Fresh Lime was a drink, not a garnish.
posted by Bigbootay. Tay! Tay! Blam! Aargh... at 10:19 PM on June 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by Bigbootay. Tay! Tay! Blam! Aargh... at 10:19 PM on June 11, 2024 [1 favorite]
Best answer: In Jamaica, 'lemonade' is often made with limes instead of lemons. I assume that's what's being referred to and would certainly fit with Marple.
posted by plonkee at 3:10 AM on June 12, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by plonkee at 3:10 AM on June 12, 2024 [2 favorites]
They used to sell this bottled stuff called cordial to make a lime drink at home. The cordial was basically lime juice turned into syrup and concentrated. Very likely Miss Marple drank that mixed with water like lemonade when she was at home. My Dad always had a bottle of it, and while you could mix it with hard liquor that's wasn't the norm at all.
Before the sales of pop became so ubiquitous, that plain syrup in water was the kind of thing that kids in Britain got to drink mid-afternoon in the summer. It was called lime squash and if you were fancy you could use carbonated water to make it instead of just cold water, but you'd never go to that effort just to make it for your kids, or your maiden aunt who considered carbonated water on par with short skirts, women smoking, and jazz. When Miss Marple was a girl, carbonated water and fresh lime in England was for the idle rich who had probably picked up the taste in Monaco, or something.
So my take is that by the time Miss Marple got to the Caribbean in 63' there was a bottle of Rose's lime syrup behind the bar, for the bartender to make drinks for cheapskates and the serious drinkers who just wanted the 94 proof gin, but Miss Marple was going all out and indulging herself on holiday by asking him to squeeze the limes and make her usual hot weather drink into something pleasingly decadent. It was a rather unprecedented trip, after all.
posted by Jane the Brown at 5:31 AM on June 12, 2024 [10 favorites]
Before the sales of pop became so ubiquitous, that plain syrup in water was the kind of thing that kids in Britain got to drink mid-afternoon in the summer. It was called lime squash and if you were fancy you could use carbonated water to make it instead of just cold water, but you'd never go to that effort just to make it for your kids, or your maiden aunt who considered carbonated water on par with short skirts, women smoking, and jazz. When Miss Marple was a girl, carbonated water and fresh lime in England was for the idle rich who had probably picked up the taste in Monaco, or something.
So my take is that by the time Miss Marple got to the Caribbean in 63' there was a bottle of Rose's lime syrup behind the bar, for the bartender to make drinks for cheapskates and the serious drinkers who just wanted the 94 proof gin, but Miss Marple was going all out and indulging herself on holiday by asking him to squeeze the limes and make her usual hot weather drink into something pleasingly decadent. It was a rather unprecedented trip, after all.
posted by Jane the Brown at 5:31 AM on June 12, 2024 [10 favorites]
They used to sell this bottled stuff called cordial to make a lime drink at home....
...Before the sales of pop became so ubiquitous, that plain syrup in water was the kind of thing that kids in Britain got to drink mid-afternoon in the summer.
We still do. I think something like 1/6 to 1/4 of the population drink it a lot, and I expect everyone would know what it is. It's usually called squash, cordial or diluting juice. The manufacturer Robinsons were partnered with Wimbledon for over 80 years and 90% of all British blackcurrants make their way into Ribena.
I think you're right that Marple drinks lime cordial at home in hot weather.
posted by plonkee at 8:25 AM on June 12, 2024 [3 favorites]
...Before the sales of pop became so ubiquitous, that plain syrup in water was the kind of thing that kids in Britain got to drink mid-afternoon in the summer.
We still do. I think something like 1/6 to 1/4 of the population drink it a lot, and I expect everyone would know what it is. It's usually called squash, cordial or diluting juice. The manufacturer Robinsons were partnered with Wimbledon for over 80 years and 90% of all British blackcurrants make their way into Ribena.
I think you're right that Marple drinks lime cordial at home in hot weather.
posted by plonkee at 8:25 AM on June 12, 2024 [3 favorites]
Here are some mentions of "fresh lime" or lime juice in British newspapers in 1964, the year the book was published:
* "At most hotels after a swim, they bring you fresh lime juice with ice and the Special Club sandwich. This is but one of the good things about hotels in India. They have air conditioning, refrigerators in every room, wonderful views ... " (The Illustrated London News, advertisement)
* In Barbados, "I found the "wine of the country," local rum and fresh lime juice (which bears only a remote resemblance to the cordial obtainable here) the most acceptable drink between meals ... " (The Sphere)
* In Jamaica, "how do you react to lying on the beach with a simple glass of lime juice in the knowledge that you are paying £2 for every waking, unforgiving hour of it?" (The Tatler)
There are more mentions of lime juice with gin, or occasionally with rum, than there are of lime juice on its own. There are twenty times as many mentions of Rose's Lime Cordial than there are of fresh lime juice. There is also a reference to fresh lime juice being good for chilblains, which I can see being attractive to Jane Marple, who was sensible about her health as she got older. She would have known about its use in the Navy to prevent scurvy too.
posted by paduasoy at 12:01 PM on June 12, 2024
* "At most hotels after a swim, they bring you fresh lime juice with ice and the Special Club sandwich. This is but one of the good things about hotels in India. They have air conditioning, refrigerators in every room, wonderful views ... " (The Illustrated London News, advertisement)
* In Barbados, "I found the "wine of the country," local rum and fresh lime juice (which bears only a remote resemblance to the cordial obtainable here) the most acceptable drink between meals ... " (The Sphere)
* In Jamaica, "how do you react to lying on the beach with a simple glass of lime juice in the knowledge that you are paying £2 for every waking, unforgiving hour of it?" (The Tatler)
There are more mentions of lime juice with gin, or occasionally with rum, than there are of lime juice on its own. There are twenty times as many mentions of Rose's Lime Cordial than there are of fresh lime juice. There is also a reference to fresh lime juice being good for chilblains, which I can see being attractive to Jane Marple, who was sensible about her health as she got older. She would have known about its use in the Navy to prevent scurvy too.
posted by paduasoy at 12:01 PM on June 12, 2024
Best answer: I looked in old Newspapers. I see "Fresh lime drink" at a lot of soda shops. Seems to be lime, sugar, and soda water.
posted by ReluctantViking at 8:57 AM on June 13, 2024
posted by ReluctantViking at 8:57 AM on June 13, 2024
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posted by brainwane at 8:37 PM on June 11, 2024 [3 favorites]