You’re likely familiar with bergamot in perfumes or Earl Grey tea, but this intensely aromatic citrus has more to offer – and here in Australia, it only took the keen growers over at Bergamia in Warburton to realise the fruit’s full potential.
The team say its juice is great as the base of a dressing, its zest excellent in cakes, biscuits and custards, and its peel primed for distilleries and drinks producers. And that’s not to mention the science around the fruit’s potential health benefits. It’s a peel-to-pith-to-flesh situation, with no part of the bergamot going to waste.
Here’s Bob Williamson, co-founder of Bergamia, with everything you need to know about bergamot.
First things first: what exactly is bergamot?
Bergamot is a citrus fruit, but it’s quite unlike any other citrus most people have tasted. It looks a little like a cross between a lemon and an orange, changing from a deep green through to yellow as it ripens, but the thing that really sets it apart is its extraordinary aroma.
When you cut into a fresh bergamot, or even squeeze the peel, you immediately release these incredibly fragrant natural oils. Sometimes you can actually see the oil spray from the skin. The aroma is floral, citrusy and slightly spicy all at once. Most people recognise it immediately once we tell them it’s the distinctive flavour and fragrance in Earl Grey tea.
Bergamot has traditionally been grown in Calabria in southern Italy, where it is famous for the essential oil extracted from its peel. Bergamot essential oil is highly sought after internationally, particularly in perfumery, but it is also increasingly interesting to distillers and drinks makers.
What we’re trying to do at Bergamia is introduce Australians to the fresh fruit itself, because there is so much more you can do with bergamot than make Earl Grey tea.
Great. What are some things chefs and cooks do with the fresh fruit?
This is where bergamot becomes really exciting. You can use the juice, zest and peel, and because the fruit is so aromatic you don’t necessarily need very much of it.
The juice can bring a beautiful acidity to dressings, marinades and sauces, and it works particularly well with fish, seafood and poultry, where you want citrus acidity but also something more aromatic than lemon. The zest is extraordinary in cakes, biscuits, custards and desserts, and bergamot works beautifully in curds, marmalades, syrups, granitas, sorbets and gelato.
Then there’s the peel. That’s where those incredible natural oils are concentrated. Squeeze a fresh bergamot and you can actually see the oil spray from the skin. Bergamot essential oil is highly prized internationally, particularly in perfumery, but that same aromatic quality makes the fresh fruit incredibly interesting for distillers, brewers and drinks makers. The peel can be infused, candied or used to bring a completely different citrus character to spirits and other drinks.
I think the best way to approach bergamot is not simply to think, “I’ll use this instead of a lemon.” It has its own personality. Start with a small amount, taste it, smell it and then decide where you want to take it.
That’s been one of the great pleasures of growing it. We can give exactly the same fruit to a chef, a pastry chef, a distiller or a maker and they will all see something completely different in it.
For a fruit that most Australians already know by smell and taste without realising it, fresh bergamot still feels wonderfully undiscovered.
Why do you think it does so well in the Yarra Valley?
That’s actually one of the most fascinating parts of our story. Our orchard is in East Warburton in the Yarra Valley, surrounded by mountains and forest. It’s certainly not Calabria. We have a much cooler, wetter climate, and winter can bring frost and even snow to the surrounding mountains.
When we first planted bergamot, there wasn’t really an Australian blueprint for growing it on this scale. We’ve had to learn from the trees and from our own conditions.
What we’ve discovered is that bergamot seems remarkably happy in our particular part of the valley. We have good rainfall, rich soil, warm summer days but cooler nights, and a long period for the fruit to mature on the tree. The trees flower beautifully and then carry their fruit through our changing seasons.
I actually think the fact that we’re growing it somewhere so different from its traditional home makes the story more interesting. We’re not trying to recreate Calabria in Victoria. We’re growing Yarra Valley bergamot, and over time we’re learning what our climate and our landscape bring to the fruit.
You grow three different varieties, Castagnaro, Fantastico and Femminello. What’s the difference between them?
We grow the three principal varieties traditionally associated with Calabrian bergamot, and having all three in the orchard is something we’re very proud of.
Castagnaro tends to give us the larger, more substantial fruit. It’s a vigorous variety and you notice the heavier fruit and generous peel.
Femminello tends to be smaller and earlier, with a beautiful aromatic quality.
And then there’s Fantastico, the standout of the three. It’s particularly prized for its extraordinary, intense aroma and the quality of its essential oil. There’s a reason it carries the name Fantastico. When you handle the fresh fruit and release the oils from the peel, the fragrance really is remarkable.
Part of the excitement of growing all three is watching how each variety behaves in the Yarra Valley. We see differences in when they flower, how the fruit develops, when it colours and, importantly for us, how it tastes.
We don’t just grow bergamot for essential oil, so we’re interested in the whole fruit. The peel, the juice, the aroma and how chefs use each variety are all important to us. The differences become particularly interesting when you have the three fruits sitting together in front of you.
Where can we get our hands on your bergamot?
Our bergamot is grown at our orchard in East Warburton in Victoria’s Yarra Valley and is available seasonally through Bergamia. We sell fresh fruit directly through our website, bergamia.com.au, and we also supply chefs, restaurants, distillers, makers and other producers who want to work with fresh Australian-grown bergamot.
Our harvest is seasonal, which is something we really want to preserve. Bergamot isn’t a fruit that should be expected to sit on a supermarket shelf twelve months of the year. Part of its beauty is waiting for the season, watching the fruit develop and then enjoying it while it’s here.
For us, the really exciting part is seeing more Australians discover that the fragrance they have known for years through Earl Grey tea and perfume actually begins with this remarkable little citrus fruit growing on a tree, and now it’s growing here in the Yarra Valley.
Discover more at bergamia.com.au and follow along on Instagram via @bergamia.citrus.