What is super juice and how to make it at home or behind the bar

The technique was created by bartender Nickle Morris (Expo Cocktail Bar, Louisville, Kentucky) and popularized worldwide by Slovenian YouTuber Kevin Kos, whose online calculator became the reference. As the name says, the idea is a "super" juice: more yield, more aroma and more stability than squeezing to order.

It is sometimes called oleo citrate juice, after its first step, and it is most often made with lime — the fruit that weighs most on the cost of a daiquiri or a margarita.

How super juice works

A squeezed lime gives 30 to 50 ml of juice and throws away the peel, where most of the aroma lives. Super juice flips that logic in three steps:

• Oleo citrate: the peels rest covered in citric acid (and malic acid, depending on the fruit) for 1 to 2 hours. The acid pulls the essential oil out of the peel, just as sugar does in an oleo saccharum.
• Rebuilt acidity: instead of relying on juice alone, acidity comes from food-grade acids weighed on a scale. That is why the result is consistent batch after batch.
• Water and juice: water dilutes the concentrate to the acidity of lemon or lime juice, and the juice of the peeled fruit goes in on top. Strain and it is ready.

How much it yields and how long it lasts

With the formula used here, 100 g of peels take 1666 g of water. For lime, that means about 5 to 7 fruits turning into almost 1.8 litres of citrus base — several times the volume you would get squeezing the same fruit.

Refrigerated in a closed bottle, super juice keeps its flavor and acidity for about one to two weeks. Fresh juice starts to oxidize and lose aroma within hours. For bars that means prepping once and serving all week; at home it means having citrus ready without wasting limes.

Ingredients and where to buy them

Besides the fruit, you need two or three food-grade powders:

• Citric acid: the main acid of every citrus fruit. Sold by homebrew suppliers, baking suppliers and online marketplaces.
• Malic acid: the acid of green apples; it goes into lime, orange and grapefruit to reproduce each fruit’s acidity profile. Same shops.
• Monosodium glutamate (MSG): grapefruit only, in a minimal amount, to round out bitterness. Optional.
• Ascorbic acid (vitamin C): kumquat only, at a minimal dose, as an antioxidant. Optional.

Equipment

A kitchen scale accurate to 1 g is the only essential item: the whole formula starts from the peel weight. Add a peeler (or a sharp knife), a container with a lid, a fine strainer and a bottle for storage. A blender helps dissolve everything but is not required.

Safety and care

Use only food-grade acids and respect the calculated amounts — the acids are concentrated. Anyone sensitive to MSG can leave it out of grapefruit without changing acidity or yield. Wash the fruit well before peeling, because the peel goes into the recipe. Keep it refrigerated and discard it if the aroma changes.

Common mistakes

Weighing whole fruit instead of peels; peeling with the white pith (bitterness); not letting the oleo citrate rest; and eyeballing acid substitutions. All of them disappear when the math starts from the real peel weight — which the Super Juice app does in one tap, for 5 fruits, in grams or ounces.

All 5 formulas compared

Every fruit has its own ratio. The factors below are multiplied by the peel weight in grams and follow Kevin Kos’s original calculator; click a fruit for the 100 g worked example and the step-by-step method.

Multiply the peel weight (in grams) by each ingredient’s factor. Acids to two decimals; water in whole grams — exactly as the app displays.

How to make it

1. Prepare the peelsWash the fruit, peel only the colored zest and weigh just the peels. That weight drives every number.
2. Mix in the acidsAdd the acids calculated for the fruit (see the table above or use the app) to the peels. Toss to coat every piece.
3. Let it restCover and wait 1 to 2 hours until the oleo citrate forms — the aromatic base of super juice.
4. Add the water and the juicePour in the calculated water and the juice squeezed from the peeled fruit; stir until dissolved.
5. Strain and storeStrain out the peels and keep it in the fridge in a closed bottle.