Yesterday I was looking at my Satsuma mandarin trees and suddenly got the urge to pull one of the unripe fruit off and taste it.

It never occurred to me to wonder if unripe citrus was edible.
The taste of the mandarin was similar to a lime or lemon, not quite as sour, but still pretty sour. I ended up eating the whole thing.

It seems to me that I could use these unripe fruit to substitute for lemons or limes in general, does anyone do this?

The only information I can find about eating unripe citrus is to not eat too much as the acids can eat the enamel off your teeth. I think this would only be a problem for someone on a fruit diet.

Fruit with high acid content can damage the enamel if you eat it for long periods and especially if you brush your teeth right after eating it. A mouth wash with baking soda soon after eating very tart fruit is very effective preventing damage.


I would not eat extreme unripe fruit out of hand but you can most certainly use it as a lime substitute. I faintly remember using a unripe lemon as a lime substitute about seven years ago with no problems and the same should be true with other unripe citrus. A few days ago a satsuma fruit got stuck in the lawn mower and was pulled off the plant but I did not imagine it as a lemon/lime substitute and certainly not eating it.