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Lime Shortage |
Slacks Ferret
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Oct 02, 2003
Posts: 1318
From: Calgary
|  Posted: 2014-03-26 10:09 am Permalink
Oh no! Bad news for those of us who like our mai tais:
http://www.pe.com/business/business-headlines/20140324-lime-shortage-rising-prices-make-for-sour-days-at-the-bar.ece
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Holler Waller
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 13, 2011
Posts: 251
From: NW TN
| Posted: 2014-03-26 10:37 am Permalink
Most of mine have had the juice of sandbags of late~
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Swanky
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 03, 2002
Posts: 5273
From: Hapa Haole Hideaway, TN
| Posted: 2014-03-26 10:55 am Permalink
Went from 25 cents to 90 cents each here. Even Costco was out, now they have bags of Persian limes the size of key limes.
I am stocking up on the organic bottled juice. It mixes well and should still be the same price for a while.
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"Mai-Kai: History & Mystery of the Iconic Tiki Restaurant" the book
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TikiTacky
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 23, 2010
Posts: 1319 | Posted: 2014-03-26 11:02 am Permalink
The article said they expect the situation to improve in May.
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thePorpoise
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jan 23, 2011
Posts: 1517
From: Tampa Bay
| Posted: 2014-03-26 11:49 am Permalink
The circle is now complete. Join me on the dry side of the Mai Tai...
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AceExplorer
Grand Member (6 years) 
Joined: Apr 03, 2008
Posts: 2134
From: Deep in the Jacksonville Florida jungle.
| Posted: 2014-03-26 12:27 pm Permalink
Three things:
1) This could spur innovation in the cocktail world.
2) Glad I had the foresight to "squeeze & freeze" quite a bit of lime juice.
3) Glad I can grow my own limes, so no shortage or exorbitant high prices for me and my home bar! (Neener neener!)
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TikiTacky
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 23, 2010
Posts: 1319 | Posted: 2014-03-26 1:34 pm Permalink
On point number 2, I think it's more likely to spur places to start using artificial lime juice if it goes on long enough.
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"You can't eat real Polynesian food. It's the most horrible junk I've ever tasted." —Trader Vic Bergeron
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kkocka
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 23, 2013
Posts: 743 | Posted: 2014-03-26 2:14 pm Permalink
Well in hopefully 3-4 years my lime tree will start producing fruit and then I'LL control the industry! Of my house.
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arriano
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 13, 2006
Posts: 1420
From: San Diego
| Posted: 2014-03-26 2:42 pm Permalink
Quote:
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On 2014-03-26 11:49, thePorpoise wrote:
The circle is now complete. Join me on the dry side of the Mai Tai...
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Quote:
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On 2014-03-26 11:02, TikiTacky wrote:
The article said they expect the situation to improve in May.
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We'll declare it the month of May Tai!
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lunavideogames
Grand Member (5 years) 
Joined: May 09, 2012
Posts: 1841
From: San Diego
| Posted: 2014-03-26 6:14 pm Permalink
I am not a fan of this lime shortage!!! Limes are now 80 cent each for small little ones. I will have to fertilize my tree so that I have some. Bummer!
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Atomic Tiki Punk
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 19, 2009
Posts: 7048
From: Costa Misery
| Posted: 2014-03-26 6:59 pm Permalink
The local ranch market (my regular source for fresh limes)
raised the price from 39 cents a pound to $2.89!
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swizzle
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 03, 2007
Posts: 1159
From: Melbourne,Australia
| Posted: 2014-03-26 8:09 pm Permalink
Would you lot stop your whining? When it's season and i'm lucky it's 3 for a $1. Generally it's more and $1.50 a piece is standard.
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Oxybeles
Tiki Centralite
Joined: Sep 23, 2013
Posts: 53
From: RSM, CA
| Posted: 2014-03-27 07:55 am Permalink
Looks like Chief Lapu Lapus for everyone! NLR*
*No Limes Required 
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“All roads lead to rum.” ~ W.C. Fields
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AceExplorer
Grand Member (6 years)
Joined: Apr 03, 2008
Posts: 2134
From: Deep in the Jacksonville Florida jungle.
| Posted: 2014-03-27 5:15 pm Permalink
This article made it to the top 10 of the MSN news page this evening:
http://news.msn.com/offbeat/mexican-restaurants-in-us-squeezed-by-surging-lime-prices
MEXICAN RESTAURANTS IN U.S. SQUEEZED BY SURGING LIME PRICES
SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Mexican restaurants in the United States are being squeezed by a sudden jump in the price of limes, an essential ingredient, which has led managers in places like San Antonio that are a hotbed for the cuisine to alter recipes.
"Mexico received some heavy rains that destroyed a large amount of the lime crop, so with limited supplies we are seeing lime prices skyrocket," Bryan Black, director of communications for the Texas Department of Agriculture, said on Thursday.
Texas like most U.S. states receives most of their limes from Mexico.
John Berry, who runs La Fonda, a prominent Mexican restaurant in San Antonio, said on Thursday the price he pays for a case of limes has jumped to nearly $100 from $14 last year.
"Real simple," Berry said. "We don't buy them. We substitute lemons."
Limes are used in guacamole and to garnish beers.
Serving a margarita without a lime garnish is burning at the heart of Louis Barrios, who runs the family-owned Mexican restaurant chain "Los Barrios." But he's doing without.
"Ninety nine percent of the time, people don't squeeze it into the margarita anyway," Barrios says.
A combination of factors has prompted the spike in lime prices. Most limes consumed in the United States come from the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Colima, and Guerrero, which have been hit by an unusual combination of cold weather and flooding, wholesalers said.
Shipments have also been disrupted by violence attributed to drug gangs, they said.
The high prices are not expected to end any time soon, according to wholesalers.
(Reporting by Jim Forsyth; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
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Loki-Tiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 05, 2007
Posts: 462
From: Like...The Valley
| Posted: 2014-03-29 4:28 pm Permalink
Between this post, and my seeing Costco being out a couple of times lately, the ironically sobering reality has hit me: I must take action! So Costco had a decent supply of limes this last trip, though the price has increased by 50% (from $6 to $9). I picked up three bags, to squeeze and freeze. I may have burned out my little home juicer doing all of these at once. Plus, they had lime trees there too! So for long term piece of mind, I picked one of those up too...The juice must flow!
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