If you've ever eaten at a Filipino restaurant, you've had calamansi. You just might not have known it.
It was in the dipping sauce. It was squeezed over the pancit. It was in the drink you couldn't quite place. That bright, tangy, slightly sweet flavour that sits somewhere between a lime and a mandarin? That's calamansi.
In the Philippines, calamansi is everywhere. It's as common as salt. Every kitchen has a bowl of them. Every street food vendor has a pile next to the grill. Once you try it, you'll understand why.
So what exactly is it?
Calamansi (sometimes spelled kalamansi) is a small citrus fruit native to the Philippines and Southeast Asia. About the size of a large marble. Usually green on the outside (that's how Filipinos use it), bright orange on the inside. The skin is thin and the juice is intense.
The flavour is hard to describe if you haven't tasted it. Imagine a lime but less bitter. A lemon but less sharp. A mandarin but more acidic. Sour and sweet at the same time, with a floral, fragrant quality that regular citrus just doesn't have.
It's not a lime. It's not a lemon. It's its own thing entirely. And once you start using it, lemon and lime will feel boring.
How Filipinos use calamansi
In Filipino cooking, calamansi does everything. Here's where to start.
The dipping sauce you didn't know you needed. Calamansi, soy sauce, and fresh chopped chili. That's it. Filipinos call it toyomansi (toyo means soy sauce, mansi from kalamansi). It's the most popular sawsawan (dipping sauce) in the Philippines. Dip your lumpia in it, your fried fish, your grilled liempo. Once you try this combination you won't go back to plain vinegar. Seriously, make this first. Tonight.
@topasianfoods A Filipino favorite sawsawan or dipping sauce - Soy Sauce or Toyo, Calamansi and Chili Garlic Oil. Top Asian Foods… #toyomansi #toyomansiplussili #sawsawan ♬ Lami Kaayo Okey Kehyoo - DjDanz
The marinade that makes Filipino BBQ addictive. Squeeze it over chicken or pork before grilling. The acidity tenderises the meat and adds a brightness that lemon can't touch. This is the secret behind every Filipino BBQ skewer you've ever loved.
Over noodles. Trust us. Squeeze it over pancit canton, pancit bihon, or even just instant noodles. It cuts through the oil and lifts the whole dish. Filipinos have been doing this forever. Try it once and you'll never eat noodles without it again.
The easiest drink you'll make all summer. Squeeze a handful into cold water, add sugar or honey, done. On a hot day there is genuinely nothing better. Some people drink it warm in the morning like a Filipino version of lemon water. Either way, it's incredible.
On everything else. Squeeze it over grilled pork chops, drizzle it on fried fish, add it to any meat dish at the table. If there's meat on a plate, calamansi makes it better.
Not Filipino? Even better.
If you've never cooked with calamansi before, you're about to have a lot of fun.
Squeeze it into a gin and tonic instead of lime. Game changer. Use it in salad dressings, over seafood, in a ceviche, or on avocado toast. Make a calamansi curd the same way you'd make lemon curd. Put it in a cheesecake. It works anywhere you want citrus but without the harshness.
Bartenders in Manila have been using it in cocktails for years. London is just catching up.
How to store it
Fresh calamansi keeps for about a week at room temperature and up to two weeks in the fridge. If you've bought more than you can use, squeeze the juice into an ice cube tray and freeze it. Each cube is roughly one calamansi worth of juice. Pop one out whenever you need it.
Where to buy calamansi in the UK
Good luck finding it in a supermarket. Most UK shops don't stock it because it's too small, too niche, and has a short shelf life.
That's why we fly it in fresh from the Philippines. We bring in calamansi alongside our Carabao mangoes, saba bananas, and mangosteen. Available to preorder when a shipment is coming in, delivered to your door anywhere in the UK.
Check the shop to see when the next shipment is landing and grab some before it's gone.