MOUEEL
EN ⌄
herbcitral · lemon · floral · perfumed · green

Lemon verbena

The most lemon thing that is not a lemon. No acid at all, which is either the point or the problem.

on its own
0.0sour
1.0sweet
0.0savoury
1.0bitter
0.0umami
order · canon first

1 of these 13 are wild — theory says yes, nobody has cooked them. why →

13 pairings for Lemon verbena.

Peach

classic

Lactones and citral: the herb makes ripe stone fruit taste like it was just picked.

Honey

common

Floral sugar and floral citrus; the tisane that half of France drinks after dinner.

Lemon

common

The leaf has the smell and no acid. The fruit has both. Use them together.

Furanone sweetness given a perfumed citrus top note it cannot make itself.

Black tea

common

Tannin grips citral and drags the aroma past the swallow. Earl Grey, differently.

Apricot

uncommon

Poached fruit, verbena in the syrup; the citral stops it tasting like a compote.

Raspberry

uncommon

Berry ionone and verbena citral are not kin, but they read as one flower. No sugar needed.

Gin

uncommon

Juniper terpenes with a lemon top note, which is what most gin already wants.

Citral over honeyed flesh. It sharpens without the pulp collapsing like lemon would.

Cocoa butter is a near-perfect citral solvent. The result reads as citrus cream.

Raw, sliced thin, verbena oil over the top. Sweet protein, perfume, no acid.

Oyster

wild

Iodine plus perfumed citrus and no vinegar. Aroma theory yes, tradition never.