50 free Lemon trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
45 free lemon trivia questions with answers. The lemon is not a wild fruit at all but a hybrid, and almost everything about it is a little stranger than it looks: it reached Rome before the year 200, crossed the Atlantic with Columbus, cured a disease that killed more sailors than battle did, and gave a name to bad cars and good advice. This quiz runs 50 questions from the easy end (what vitamin is a lemon famous for, what liqueur is made from its zest on the Amalfi Coast) up to questions for produce nerds and food historians: which USDA plant explorer brought the Meyer lemon out of China, why California destroyed most of its Meyer trees, what a 13th-century Egyptian lemon drink was called, and how much the heaviest lemon on record weighed. Every answer has been checked against an encyclopaedia entry or the primary record, and the source is shown under each question once you have answered, so it works for a kitchen quiz night, a classroom food-science warm-up or a themed round at the pub.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01A true lemon is a hybrid of the bitter orange and which other citrus fruit?
Citron
The citron is one of the handful of original citrus species from which every modern variety descends.
Q 02Some evidence suggests lemons originated during the 1st millennium BC in what is now which country?
India
From there the fruit worked its way west through Persia, Iraq and Egypt over the following centuries.
Q 03Roughly what percentage of lemon juice is citric acid?
5-6%
That is about twice the citric acid of grapefruit juice and about five times that of orange juice.
Q 04Which two countries together produced 31% of the world's lemons in 2024?
India and Mexico
World production that year was about 23 million tonnes.
Q 05Botanically, a lemon is a hesperidium, which is a modified form of what?
Berry
A hesperidium is a berry with a tough, leathery rind, the same structure shared by oranges and grapefruits.
Q 06The word 'lemon' ultimately traces back to which language, where it was a generic term for citrus fruit?
Persian
The route was Old French limon, Italian limone, Arabic laymun or limun, and finally the Persian limun.
Q 07Lemons had reached southern Italy, in the time of ancient Rome, no later than roughly which year?
AD 200
That puts lemons in Roman Italy, though large-scale cultivation would not begin for well over a thousand years.
Q 08The first substantial European cultivation of lemons began in the mid-15th century in which city?
Genoa
The maritime republic's traders had long links to the eastern Mediterranean, where the fruit was already established.
Q 09Who brought lemon seeds to Hispaniola in 1493, introducing the fruit to the Americas?
Christopher Columbus
The seeds arrived on his second voyage, a year after the first landfall.
Q 10The lemon spread across the Mediterranean between roughly 1000 and 1150 during which historical movement?
The Arab Agricultural Revolution
The fruit had reached Persia, Iraq and Egypt around the year 700 before spreading further west.
Q 11The 'Eureka' lemon was developed in 19th-century California from specimens brought west during which event?
The Gold Rush
It came from specimens brought west during the Gold Rush.
Q 12The 'Lisbon' lemon was brought to California by immigrants from which country?
Portugal
It is very similar to the Eureka, and the two dominate commercial groves.
Q 13The 'Bonnie Brae' lemon, an oblong, thin-skinned, seedless variety, is mostly grown in which area?
San Diego County, California
The variety is smooth-skinned and seedless, unlike most commercial lemons.
Q 21Who won the 1937 Nobel in Physiology or Medicine partly for isolating ascorbic acid?
Albert Szent-Györgyi
Humans, guinea pigs and most bats cannot make their own vitamin C, while most other animals can.
Q 22The Meyer lemon is a cross between one of the original citrus species and a hybrid of which two fruits?
Mandarin and pomelo
That parentage is why it is sweeter and less tart than a supermarket lemon, tasting a little like a tangerine.
Q 23In which country did Frank Meyer collect the Meyer lemon he introduced to the US in 1908?
China
It was catalogued as S.P.I. #23028, one of thousands of plants he sent home.
Q 14The 'Yen Ben' lemon is a cultivar from which part of the world?
Australasia
It is a Lisbon-type selection grown commercially in New Zealand and Australia.
Q 15Which physician's 1747 experiments on seamen with scurvy involved adding lemon juice to their diet?
James Lind
The trial aboard HMS Salisbury used twelve patients and is regarded as one of the first controlled clinical experiments.
Q 16On which ship did the famous 1747 scurvy trial take place while it patrolled the Bay of Biscay?
HMS Salisbury
The ship's surgeon divided twelve sick sailors into pairs and gave each pair a different supposed remedy.
Q 17In which year did the Admiralty agree to issue lemon juice routinely to the whole fleet?
1795
It followed a 23-week non-stop voyage to India by the Suffolk, on which the juice was issued as a test.
Q 18The 1867 law requiring British sailors' daily lime or lemon juice helped attach which nickname to the British?
Limey
The name spread from sailors to English immigrants in America, New Zealand and South Africa.
Q 19Scurvy, the disease that lemon juice prevents, is caused by a lack of which nutrient?
Vitamin C
The vitamin's chemical name, ascorbic acid, literally means 'anti-scurvy'.
Q 20On his 1499 voyage, which explorer lost 116 of a crew of 170, mainly to scurvy?
Vasco da Gama
Magellan fared even worse two decades later, losing 208 of 230 men.
Q 24Most US Meyer lemon trees were destroyed in the 1940s because they were symptomless carriers of what?
Citrus tristeza virus
A virus-free selection found in the 1950s was released by the University of California in 1975 as the 'Improved Meyer lemon'.
Q 25Which Chez Panisse chef is credited with rediscovering the Meyer lemon as a food item?
Alice Waters
Its popularity climbed further when Martha Stewart began featuring it in recipes.
Q 26In which state did the Ponderosa lemon, a large bumpy-rinded fruit, arise as a chance seedling around 1887?
Maryland
Genomic analysis found it is a hybrid of pomelo and citron, so it is not a true lemon at all.
Q 27Which lemon variety, also known as Sorrento or Sfusato, is traditionally used to make limoncello?
Femminello St. Teresa
Only the zest goes into the liqueur; it is steeped in spirit until the oil is released, then mixed with syrup.
Q 28Limoncello is the second most popular liqueur in Italy, behind which brand?
Campari
It is traditionally served chilled as an after-dinner digestif.
Q 29A lemon-juice-and-sugar drink called qatarmizat was being consumed in the 13th century in which country?
Egypt
A drink of lemons, dates and honey was also drunk in the Mamluk period.
Q 30In 1676 the Compagnie de Limonadiers sold lemonade from tanks carried on vendors' backs in which city?
Paris
The vendors dispensed cups of the soft drink to passers-by in the street.