Bergamot (Exp.) EO
Origin: Italy

• Details and product description

  Introduction:

  The bergamot is a small ramified tree around 4 meters high with a straight trunk. It is a member of the Aurantiacus family (Rutaceae). The fruit of the bergamot resembles a small orange with a green color that turns yellow when ripe and weighs between 80 and 200 grams. Its origin is unknown: Bergamot may have been a cross between the fruit of the bitter orange tree and a lime. It has intermediary characteristics between a bitter orange tree and a lemon tree: smooth oval green leaves with winged perioles. The fragrant white flowers produce small round or sometimes pear-shaped fruits like miniature dark-green oranges, which turn yellow when ripe. The pulp is acidic and the zest is very aromatic.

  History:

  Between the 14th and 15th centuries, bergamot appeared in the orchards of southern Italy. One story says it is the result of a mutation of a bitter orange. Another version of its origin recounts that the bergamot comes from the cross between a lemon tree and a bitter orange tree, or even a lime tree and a bitter orange tree. For centuries, references have been made to lemon-bergamot or orange-bergamot. Its very name is subject to debate. Some say it came from the city of Bergamo, in northern Italy, where it was cultivated, and references were made to a bergamot pear. This is surprising because this citrus tree needs a very warm climate and its large-scale production sites are further south. It has been cultivated for more than six centuries in Calabria. Nowadays, Calabria accounts for 90% of production. Still another story recounts that its name could be a deformation of the Turkish beg-armudi, which means “princess of the pear” or “pear of the lord,” and that the bergamot orange comes from the East brought back by the Crusaders. Probably originating in tropical Asia, bergamot was introduced to Europe via Turkey. It was first cultivated in Italy at Bergamo (hence its name), later mainly cultivated in Calabria and Sicily, then in North Africa and the Ivory Coast The spread of the tree in Calabria is due to the Italian, Paolo Feminis, immigrant to Cologne, who invented "Aqua admirabilis" in 1676. It was later christened "Acqua di Colonia" or Eau de Cologne by his grandson and launched on the European market in 1818. Small painted and varnished boxes, made from the tree’s dried bark in the middle of the 18th century, were a popular specialty of Grasse. The bergamot orange tree has white, very perfumed flowers, a very small percentage of which produce fruit. It flourishes in temperate or tropical climates where temperatures do not fall below 10° or 12°C, a climate it enjoys in Calabria and the Ivory Coast. Cultural significance: The Bergamot tree has the power to procure wealth, and still today more than one Sicilian shopkeeper lets a Bergamot orange dry out in the drawer of his or her cash register. It has been associated with charms and rituals consecrated to material success. For example, so that one’s wallet will never to be empty, a few leaves of bergamot are slipped into one of the bill folds. Another practice consists of cutting a bergamot orange in two and then rubbing the juicy part on banknotes that are about to be spent: even if these bills make a long journey, they will be sure to return someday.

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