The bergamot
It is very aromatic.
It looks like an orange but has the brilliant yellow colouring of a lemon. No-one knows exactly where this fruit came from or how it came to be created. It is only grown on a very narrow coastal strip in southern Calabria, and even its name is the subject of controversy.
Yet over the last four hundred years it has been an object of admiration, wonder and fascination for botanists, doctors, researchers, important chefs, wellbeing specialists and famous perfumers.
It is the Bergamotto di Reggio Calabria, the legendary “beg-armudi”, or “prince’s pear”. Thanks to a combination of chance and the benign conditions of the local climate and geography, this fruit has been able to grow and flourish just in a very restricted area of Calabria, and over the centuries has become a vital economic resource for the whole region: an exclusive type of citrus, much admired and sought-after in every corner of the world.
The reason for its great popularity is concealed in its outer covering: in the golden essence extracted solely from the peel of the fruit. This is the famous “Green Gold”, the essential oil of Bergamotto di Reggio Calabria, with its myriad and unique properties. In the context of our search for a deeper, more genuine connection with all that is natural or derived from nature, the Bergamot is now considered more precious than ever before, reasserting its prominent role in maintaining our wellbeing.
