Last night, Bill made me a couple of very delicious margaritas. They’re really so simple. Tequila, Cointreau, fresh lime juice, ice. It doesn’t get a lot easier than that.

We also had, for dinner, what we call “date night food”. It means we splurged on some fancy cheeses, crackers and meats, and then laid out a spread on the table and nibbled and chatted through dinner. We’d love for it to look something like what you see in the first page of Google image results for “cheese and charcuterie board”, but we’re not that good yet. Mostly, it just looks like some giant slabs of cheese on a board, with slices of meat.

One of the the things I’ve been fascinated with since I got into beer is the play of different flavors with each other. Sometimes amazing, sometimes terrible. Always interesting. And, in the case of last night, occasionally that play acts as a reminder.

See, something I ate, and I’m not sure what, immediately before having a sip of my margarita did terrible things to the margarita. Made it incredibly bitter. And reminded me of something. It took me a second to place it, until I remembered the finger lime Uncle Bill brought me back from the coffee farm tour. Which, in turn, reminded me that I had not yet told you guys about them at all.

They’re interesting. Not only are they tiny and long, the insides are not segmented the way you’d expect. In fact, the flesh is in almost spherical bits and can be squeezed out of the skin. It’s kind of like squeezing toothpaste.

Rather, there are “normal” segments, holding these caviar bits. I know, because Bill thought maybe he could supreme the finger lime half to neat effect, but it didn’t work out well. He gave up and went for squeezing his half too.

Uncle Bill had said to me that the flavor reminded him of citronella. I didn’t get that as much as I got powerful LIME and powerfully bitter flavors. To me, it almost seemed like lime essence in tiny packets. Distilled lime, perhaps.

But my fingers, after, smelled a bit of citronella. And Uncle Bill had mentioned eating his lime by cutting and then squeezing directly into his mouth with his teeth. So, I’ll wager that part of the peel’s oils are citronella-related.

I’d thought this lime would make a good margarita, but after last night, I’m not so sure. And, in truth, juicing one of these bastards would be a right pain. However, the peel has some interesting possiblities for cocktails, and I suspect the “lime caviar” would make for really cool edible garnishes.

Basically, what I’m saying is that Seth at Boozy Begger needs to get his hands on some and make some bad-ass cocktails. Possibly tequila and/or mezcal cocktails. And teach me how to make them.

Because YUM.

A housekeeping note: I am about to get some minor bits cut out of my dominant arm and my chest on the same side. I expect to not sleep well and to not like typing. Thus, I hope you all will forgive me if updates are even more sporadic than usual. Also, I hope you find and try some finger limes.