Lemon verbena

Verveine citronnelle

What it is

Brought from the Andes in the 18th century and named for a Spanish queen, it settled into French life as the grandmother’s tisane of Provence. Pastry chefs rediscovered what the grandmothers knew: no other leaf smells this purely of lemon without a drop of acidity.

In the kitchen

Infuse it in warm cream or syrup off the heat, covered, ten minutes — boiling murders its perfume. Transcendent with peaches and apricots.

Goes with

Peach Strawberry Cream Honey Raspberry

Also used with

Wild strawberry Sunflower lecithin Vineyard peach

In season alongside

Finger lime Jasmine pearl tea Acacia honey Sweetfish (ayu) Borage Brousse du Rove

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