You may have heard that there’s a shortage of and increase in the price of limes going on here in the USA where we get most of our limes from Mexico. 
I can verify that limes at Haymarket, which could be had six or eight for a buck last year, are going for 50 cents each if you can find them at all. You may also have heard or read of this referred to as #limepocalypse or #limeageddon. For one, the Mother Nature Network reports,
Bad weather and a tree disease in Michoacán, Mexico, have wreaked havoc on the lime supply, further exacerbated by the mind-boggling influence of drug cartels. (Because apparently when making billions of dollars on cocaine isn’t enough, it’s time to begin shaking down lime farmers.) At this point, the Knights Templar Cartel controls the wholesale distribution center where growers sell limes to the global market, making limes an even hotter commodity.But we digress; back to more important things like margaritas.
Indeed, let’s get back to cocktails before we learn too much about where our fruit comes from and what’s driving the price up. First world problems anybody? Here’s another take on what’s happening in Mexico and how it affects our precious cocktails. So what about limepocalpypse – what is an apocalypse anyway, and just how overblown (or not) is it to link this lime situation to one?
Via good old wikipedia,
An apocalypse (Ancient Greek: ἀποκάλυψις apocálypsis, from ἀπό and καλύπτω meaning ‘un-covering’), translated literally from Greek, is a disclosure of knowledge, i.e., a lifting of the veil or revelation, although this sense did not enter English until the 14th century.[1] In religious contexts it is usually a disclosure of something hidden. In the Book of Revelation (Greek Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰωάννου, Apocalypsis Ioannou), the last book of the New Testament, the revelation which John receives is that of the ultimate victory of good over evil and the end of the present age, and that is the primary meaning of the term, one that dates to 1175.[1] Today, it is commonly used in reference to any prophetic revelation or so-called End Time scenario, or to the end of the world in general.
So an apocalypse is a revelation, or more recently, any old end-of-the-world scenario. Well, a lime shortage is hardly the end of the world, even for a dedicated gin and tonic drinker, but drug cartels violently hijacking your livelihood is a sure sign of the end of days for a lime farmer. For those of us closer to the poolside tippling end of the lime food chain, perhaps this event will be an actual revelation, in the sense of disclosure, teaching us a bit about where these limes come from and what life is like for those that grow them.
Food for thought to go with your cocktail.