Citrus Press

What is Citrus Press? A citrus press is a hinged hand-held lever squeezer used to extract juice from halved citrus fruits, primarily lemons and limes, by compressing the fruit between two arms fitted with a perforated cup and a domed pressing cone. In the bar trade it is almost universally known as the Mexican Elbow, a nickname whose exact origin is undocumented but is generally linked to the elbow-like arm motion and to the tool's popularization through Mexican bar culture. The design is simple but ingenious: the perforations double as an integrated strainer, so juice drops cleanly into a glass or jigger while pulp and seeds stay behind. It is the workhorse tool for fresh juice à la minute, the small, on-demand pours that define a properly made cocktail.

How It Works

The mechanism is deceptively clever. A halved citrus fruit is placed in the perforated cup cut-side down, with the skin facing up toward the dome. When the handles are squeezed, the dome pushes against the peel and inverts it, turning the half inside out. This action forces juice through the perforations and, as a bonus, expresses a small amount of essential oil from the peel, adding aromatic lift to the drink.

Suitability depends on size. Lemons and limes are the primary targets; smaller oranges and kumquats fit a larger press; grapefruit is generally too big for a hand press. Sizes are not strictly standardized, but professional models typically run around 20 to 22 cm in length. Bars often color-code their presses: yellow for lemon, green for lime, orange for orange. The color also roughly indicates the cup diameter, and using a lime in a lemon-sized press will lose efficiency because the fruit does not seat properly against the dome.

Materials and Bar Use

Citrus presses are most commonly made from cast aluminium, often enamel-coated, or from stainless steel. Stainless steel versions are heavier, more durable and dishwasher-safe; aluminium versions are lighter and cheaper but can pit over time with prolonged acid contact. Bonzer, made by Mitchell & Cooper in the UK, is one of the best-known manufacturers and has produced barware since the 1930s; its standard Mexican Elbow measures around 215 mm in length and weighs roughly 339 g.

In a working bar, the tool is used for small, on-demand pours: a single margarita, daiquiri, sour, mojito or gimlet. It is not designed for bulk juicing, where reamer-style or electric citrus juicers take over. Its spread in London bartending is credited to Mexican bartenders working at venues such as Cafe Pacifico, Green & Red and La Perla, who brought the press into the cocktail scene and helped make it a global standard.

How It Differs From Other Squeezers

Although the terms are often used loosely, the Mexican Elbow is a specific design: two handles, a hinge, a perforated cup and an opposing dome. A reamer is different; it is a ridged cone, hand-held or fixed, with no lever, and the user twists the fruit against the ridges by hand. A traditional lemon squeezer is usually a fixed press without the two-arm geometry. If a recipe asks for fresh juice in cocktail-sized quantities and you want a clean pour with the seeds caught for you, the lever-style citrus press is the right tool.