Chinotto

Chinotto (Citrus myrtifolia) is a small sour orange — not a kumquat as sometimes mislabelled — with small, intensely bitter-aromatic fruit used primarily to flavour drinks, bitters and liqueurs. The Chinotto drink that shares its name is a well-known Italian carbonated soft drink made from this fruit. Compact, slow-growing evergreen tree with small dark leaves and minimal thorns. The fruit is rarely eaten fresh due to extreme bitterness. Self-fertile. Note: although sometimes grouped with kumquats in nursery catalogues, Chinotto is botanically a sour orange (Citrus myrtifolia).