Nellie & Joe’s Famous Key West Lime Juice, reviewed
- March 29, 2011
- Fruits and Veggies, Product Reviews
- 9 comments
Nothing beats a key lime when you’re going to make a key lime pie. Key limes are more acidic and more tart than Persian limes (the most common variety of lime), and they make for a very bright and sweet-tart pie. I use regular limes when I don’t have key limes because they work just as well and still turn out a very good key lime pie. While I definitely wouldn’t use just any bottled lime juice, I wondered how bottled key lime juice work work and picked up a bottle of Nellie & Joe’s Famous Key West Lime Juice to give it a try.
This key lime juice is from concentrate, but it is made with 100% Key Limes from Key West, Florida. It comes in a 16 ounce bottle, which gives you more than enough juice for 3 or 4 key lime pies. The juice looks and smells very fresh, and the very bright and slightly bitter key lime flavor is unmistakable. It is definitely the best bottled lime juice I’ve had to date, and it worked beautifully in a test pie. Fresh persian limes are still a good choice when you can’t find Key limes, but you’ll do very well if you opt for this bottled key lime juice in place of fresh key limes, too.
9 Comments
I’ve been using Nellie & Joe’s for years, ever since my former MIL found it and tried it one time. It does make great key lime pies, but I also use it in vinaigrette recipes, in marinades, in my ceviche, and even just a splash in some iced tea or club soda as well.
I been using it for the last 15 years. The lemon is wonderful too.
As a native Floridian now living in New York, this bottled key lime juice has been a lifesaver when I’m craving the flavors from home! I love it. I have to disagree with you about the Persian limes though. The flavor is very different, not nearly as tangy as a true key lime pie. To me, it’s like substituting strawberries for a raspberry pie! You’ll still get a delicious pie, but it’s not strawberry anymore.
It’s great in Margaritas!
Have they changed from a glass bottle to plastic? This
pic looks like plastic.
They don’t grow Key Limes in Key West, at least
commercially. That hasn’t been done for decades.
Most KL juices are made from frozen pulp imported
from South America or the Caribbean.
Brenda – The bottles are made of plastic.
Nellie and Joe’s Organic Key Lime juice still comes in bottles.
Nellie and Joes makes a great “lime pie” with the product labeled “key west lime juice”. I’ve been in the food biz for 40 yrs and am not aware of anything called a “key west lime”. They have not grown Key Limes commercially since the hurricanes wiped out the groves in the 1930′s. If this is 100% KL juice why do they make a product labeled 100% KL Juice? Are you being duped by how it is labeled. Ing. says “kwy west lime juice”. Could it be just persian limes.