Limetta
Note Profile
About
Limetta is the peel of Citrus limetta, the sweet lime or mosambi. It smells bright and zesty like lime but rounder and sweeter, with much less acid bite.
Scent Profile
Citrus leads and is nearly all of it: bright, zesty, recognisably lime. Floral is the second facet both trade and reference sources name, a slight blossom nuance that is part of why the fruit reads as rounder than lime. Under those sit a juicy fruity body, a light green peel freshness, a soft sweetness and a faint honeyed and aldehydic lift. Sour is scored low on purpose. Wikipedia states the fruit lacks acidity and tastes flatter than most citrus, and a trade glossary says the same, so the low value is a claim the sources make rather than an absence assumed.
ScentWheel
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
Origin
Citrus limetta is a hybrid of citron and bitter orange, grown widely in India and the Mediterranean. It is not the Palestinian sweet lime, Citrus limettioides, which shares the common name 'sweet lime' but is a citron crossed with a mandarin/pomelo hybrid. In France the fruit is colloquially called bergamot, which Wikipedia is explicit is a naming coincidence: true bergamot is Citrus bergamia, a different species. The note is the cold-pressed peel, not the juice.
Usage in Perfumery
A top note where lime is wanted without the sharpness. It reads as a softer opening than lime or lemon and can carry a composition that would be cut too hard by either.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Limetta
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Limetta appears prominently.
No perfumes featuring this note have been reviewed yet. Check back soon.