Rangpur lime
Rangpur lime, Citrus × limonia or Citrus reticulata × medica, sometimes called the mandarin lime or lemandarin, is a hybrid between the mandarin orange and the citron. It is a citrus fruit with a very acidic taste and an orange peel and flesh.
Common names
It takes its name after Rangpur, a Bangladeshi city. Rangpur is also known in the Indian subcontinent as Gondhoraj Lebu, Sylhet lime, surkh nimboo, and sharbati. It is known as a canton-lemon in South China, a hime-lemon in Japan, as limão-cravo in Brazil, and mandarin-lime in the United States.History
The Rangpur lime has a fascinating journey from South Asia to the West. Although often mistaken for a lemon hybrid, genomic studies reveal that it is actually an F1 hybrid of a female citron and a male mandarin orange. The fruit was widely cultivated in Rangpur, Bangladesh, where it became well known for its sour, lime-like flavor despite its orange skin. In the late nineteenth century, the Reasoner Brothers of Oneco, Florida, introduced the Rangpur lime to the United States after obtaining seeds from northwestern Bangladesh. Since then, it has been grown not only for its culinary uses but also as a hardy rootstock for grafting other citrus varieties, spreading its influence far beyond its Bangladeshi roots.Use
Rangpurs are highly acidic and can be used as a substitute for limes. However the name lime in connection with this fruit is misleading, because there are very few similarities between the rangpur and other fruits called limes.In 2006, Diageo introduced a rangpur-flavored version of Tanqueray gin, known simply as Tanqueray Rangpur.