Lemon Essence Spray spray is fresh lemon peel oil in a bottle. The technique is identical to the orange essence spray — three ingredients, two minutes, decanted into a small atomizer. Only the essential oil changes. This page covers the lemon-specific notes; the orange page covers the theory (why spray, food-grade essential oils, the propylene glycol carrier, the high-proof spirit base).
Lemon-or-Grapefruit-Specific Notes
Use a food-grade lemon essential oil — Citrus limon, cold-pressed if available. LorAnn, Frontier Co-op, and Watkins sell food-grade lemon oils at supermarket prices. Avoid "natural lemon flavour" extracts in vodka — those are flavour concentrates with very different chemistry, and the spray will not behave the same way.
How to Use It
The lemon spray is the workhorse of the kit. Sidecar, Brandy Crusta, French 75, Whiskey Sour, Vesper, Aviation, Corpse Reviver No. 2, Last Word — any drink that takes a lemon peel twist as garnish or aromatic finish works directly with two sprays at the rim.
One or two sprays substitute for a fresh peel expression; three or four sprays produce an assertive aromatic finish. The atomizer adds essentially no volume to the drink — well under a tenth of a millilitre per spray.
Storage
Indefinite in a dark cabinet. As with the orange spray, light is the main enemy — a tinted bottle or a closed cabinet preserves the spray for a year or more.