Why Yuzu?

Yuzu is an Eastern Asian citrus popular in Japan. Yuzu’s can be either yellow or green depending on the stage of ripeness. When they are ripe, they are similar in colour to lemon although they have a little more gold in their pigment. It looks a little like a mini grapefruit in shape with rough, uneven skin.

Growing up in Vancouver I had never heard of a Yuzu and one day while I was shopping in Whole Foods Market, I saw this new drink that Whole Foods had just recnetily started carrying called Yuzu. Always intrigued by strange foreign products I picked up this sparkling yuzu soda off the shelf. My girlfriend who was with me shopping was like oh I know Yuzu. It is a very common flavour in Japan. Although it was a tad bit expensive at $6.99 each, we purchased two of these drinks to try. I was pleasantly surprised by the flavour. It had the sour citrus flavour of a lemon, but it was also accompanied by an undertone taste of orange.

As the drink was rather expensive to consume on a regular basis Emily and I only had this drink on occasion. When we moved to Victoria together from Vancouver to work for a small grocery store on the island, we discovered that this same Yuzu drink that we came to love was on their shelves as well for only $4.99. It started to become one of our favorite drinks and was a popular choice for us to drink during our lunch or after a long day at work.

After discovering this new citrus flavour that I really enjoyed I started looking for other yuzu flavoured foods everywhere I went. Emily and I started buying every yuzu flavoured item that we came across. Yuzu became our flavour.

When Emily and I decided that we wanted to take a year and travel North America we started looking for pickup trucks to pull our trailer. When we eventually found our truck, it only seemed natural to name her Yuzu. Our trip then followed suite and Yuzu Travel was born.