Neville checks out his yuzu a week before harvest time Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
It's ancient, niche, sour and prickly - what's not to love about yuzu?
But ask Neville Chun if he'd recommend other orchardists follow his journey growing the fruit and he's not so sure.
A partnership with Garage Project has sweetened the experience, though, and the brewery snaps up the harvest to add a "pucker-up" zest to its range of yuzu beers.
It's been a hard road learning to understand the citrus tree, with its dagger-like thorns, Chun says while strolling through his one-hectare Horowhenua orchard.
The plant is cultivated mainly in East Asian countries like Japan and Korea and Chun became interested through his Japanese wife and while working in the family garden centre business hunting down unusual trees and shrubs.
His initial planting of 200 trees nearly 20 years ago was not easy, Chun remembers.
"It took us ages because we're townies. We don't know how to dig holes.
"Two weeks later we came back and they were all gone ... bloody eaten to the ground by rabbits."
Neville Chun with a finger lime, one of the niche fruit varieties he grows in Horowhenua Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
There have been seasons when the trees produced nothing at all and, when they do fruit, picking has to be done with long leather gloves to avoid injury.
Becoming organic brought another set of challenges.
"There were two periods in time when we thought 'oh we just can't do this this, it's too hard, we'll give up. But we did persevere.
"We're just at the stage now where everything's mature and we've got a better understanding of the trees."
With demand for yuzu growing, he now has contract growers from Gisborne to Taihape to the Nelson Lakes region.
"We're stretching the capabilities of yuzu."
The fruit can be picked at two stages and Country Life visits a couple of weeks before the harvest of the unripened fruit.
At this stage of its growth it is highly valued in Japan for its dark pungent green skin used in a condiment called yuzukosho, Chun explains.
About a third of the tree is harvested green and the rest is picked when it becomes fully ripe and a vibrant yellow.
Chun's yuzu goes to brewers, distillers and chefs. Olive oils and beers infused with the fruit have won awards.
This year's green yuzu harvest has made its way again to central Wellington and Garage Project's wild workshop.
Brewer co-founder Pete Gillespie says they've been adding Chun's yuzu zest to a range of beers since they started brewing.
"We've become almost obsessed with yuzu.
"It just adds that wonderful citrus top note and it also works beautifully with hops. Hops almost have a similar citrusy character and this just amplifies that.
"It makes your mouth pucker up."
Pete Gillespie at Garage Project's wild workshop in central Wellington Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Gillespie says Chun's enthusiasm and passion are infectious and he supplies them with other niche products like Mexican marigolds and ume, a Japanese plum.
"He quite often will turn up with a huge handful of something interesting and find out whether we would like to put it in a beer. The answer's normally 'yes'."
Country Life watches as the zest goes into a tank of yuzu wildflower brew blended with a stout to create a new product called The View from Nowhere.
"What better name for a weird blend of sour light beer and dark strong stout with a little bit of yuzu on top," Gillespie smiles.
The yuzu zest is added to the tank Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
