Its scent is sweet, honeyed and somewhat metallic with green and spicy facets. The blossoms are gathered, usually by hand, in late April to early May. The oil is extracted by steam distillation. Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt are the cara cara blood orange producers of Neroli.
By the end of the 17th century, Anne Marie Orsini, duchess of Bracciano and princess of Nerola, Italy, introduced the essence of bitter orange tree as a fashionable fragrance by using it to perfume her gloves and her bath. Neroli is one of the most widely used floral oils in perfumery. It also has a limited use in flavorings. Neroli oil is reportedly one of the ingredients in the closely guarded secret recipe for the Coca-Cola soft drink. Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin. Archived from the original on 2009-04-10. Look up neroli in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
The trifoliate orange, Citrus trifoliata or Poncirus trifoliata, is a member of the family Rutaceae. Whether the trifoliate oranges should be considered to belong to their own genus, Poncirus, or be included in the genus Citrus is debated. It is native to northern China and Korea, and is also known as the Japanese bitter-orange, hardy orange or Chinese bitter orange. Because of its relative hardiness, citrus grafted onto Citrus trifoliata are usually hardier than when grown on their own roots.
