Hi Everyone,
Every once an a while we have issues with our Ginger Lemon shots, they thicken to an odd consistency that is not appealing and definitely not sellable. This typically happens within two hours. We press on the CT-7. Any thoughts as to why this is happening? It’s very odd and doesn’t happen all the time.
~Amanda
How do you prepare the lemons? Are you rough cutting them?
I had the same thought. If you’re leaving the peel on that can create the creamy texture and it turns bitter quickly.
We typically leave the peel, especially because it doesn’t happen every time. I’ll take the peel on and give it a try! Thanks!
If you plan on removing the lemon peel, which I highly suggest, dont use a vegetable peeler. That takes awhile and is difficult. It’s faster to use a knife to rough cut the peel and the white pith beneath.
Wanted to send over an update on our Ginger+Lemon issue. We’ve done several test batches. We’ve peeled and we haven’t peeled. Sometime it happens and sometimes it doesn’t, we get different results each time. So I honestly don’t know why this is happening.
We did think it was the sanitize solution we were using in our third bay, so rinsed our container after it had been sanitized and air dried. The first time we did this, with non-peeled lemons, it worked we didn’t get the gelatinized texture, but the next time we did it, we did.
That is very odd. I have another question - is it happening to the full batch of bottles or just some?
I know that the starch in ginger settles to the bottom of whatever container you juice it into, so if you don’t shake it it can be very thick and starchy towards the bottom. That would mean maybe the last part of the batch you’re bottling could have a lot of starch in it.
So because we have this issue, we don’t bottle our shots. We keep them in one big container and then pour individually to order. That way, we don’t take the chance of someone bringing it home and instead of a 2oz bottle of ginger+lemon, they get a bottle of flubber.
Hi Amanda,
I just wanted to jump back to this - Did you manage to solve the gel issue? We’ve been having issues with our lemon/ginger shots turning to jelly after a day, and with one of our juices we’re finding ‘balls of jelly’ which don’t separate after shaking (Carrot, Orange, Lemon, Apple, Ginger & Turmeric). We haven’t changed our recipes, or suppliers etc and have been reading things online suggesting it could be the differing levels of pectin found in the produce throughout the year. It hasn’t happened until the last few weeks which is strange and have had complaints from customers…
Would love to hear if you managed to solve your issue at all.
Bruce
Hello @Bruce. Just to jump in, Pectin levels in produce vary when in season or not, some produce that are high in pectin are actually carrots, citrus, and apples. Here are a couple of suggestions that might work.
@Bruce @AriS We ended up trying everything that was suggested at the time, but for some reason, we always had the same outcome. I never tried quartering the lemons and adding them directly to the press though – you might find some relief there. Also, I ended up using a recipe that used even amounts of ginger and lemon and have found success there! Best of luck! Let me know if quartering the lemons works out for you!
Thanks so much for your quick reponse Ari. Honestly, very much appreciate it. I did think about changing the PH so i’ll give that a go 
Thanks for getting back to me!! really appreciate you taking the time. Good to know about the ginger/lemon recipe so maybe I’ll adjust that recipe up and see how we go.