Fairchild tangerine fruit8/7/2023 ![]() How can you tell which are best when? "What you taste is what you get," says Bill Fujimoto, one of the San Francisco Bay Area's best produce buyers and owner of the Monterey Market in Berkeley. Round, intensely flavored Page mandarins - a favorite of all the growers I spoke with - have been in for weeks now, but the best are just about to start. Clementines started tasting really good earlier this month. Sweet satsumas started in October - the Owari variety is widely considered the best - but didn't sparkle until around the end of November California's best will be gone by mid-January. New varieties have been developed to stretch the season as far as possible, but growers admit that the early and late varieties often lack the flavor of fruit at its peak. Mandarins are in the market for months, but the peak season for each variety is short. Flavor also depends on how they're grown, how long they're stored and whether they're waxed or treated with chemicals to keep them from spoiling. The window for ripening on the tree is very narrow - picked too early, they'll be tart too late and they'll be flat. ![]() All mandarins share a tendency toward loose skins, small size and tangy sweetness, but the many varieties have distinctive flavors. The differences aren't just in the names. To further complicate things, they're marketed under brand names like Delites and Cuties, often in little 5-pound boxes. Some are seedless, some aren't, and some can be either, depending on how they're grown. There are Page mandarins, clementines, Dancy and Fairchild tangerines, W. Both "tangerine" and "mandarin" are used interchangeably to cover many different kinds of vaguely related fruits. The season stretches out from autumn's first satsumas until June. One reason tangerines, or mandarins, don't get their due is that it's easy to take them for granted. And segments arranged in circular rows can brighten up a custard tart. Kids love them, because they're small, sweet and easy to peel.Īs far as cooking goes, their main use is in winter salads, where they can provide a sweet burst of flavor amid bitter greens and nuts or nut oils. He could be describing any kind of tangerine sampled at its peak.Ī bowl of pretty tangerines with fresh green stems and leaves can add holiday zest to a dining table or kitchen counter, and often serves as a symbol for gold among Chinese people celebrating the lunar New Year. ![]() Yes, he's selling his fruit, but that doesn't make him wrong. And they're juicy, and they have this little burst of flavor. They're the essence of tangerine, they're so good. ![]() The peel falls off and what's revealed inside is like baby's toes - tiny segments, and they're perfect and clean. Listen to Ojai, Calif., grower Jim Churchill, who calls himself Tangerine Man, describing his miniature kishu variety, which is about the size of a half-dollar and will flash through the market for a few short weeks in January: And A well-grown tree-ripened fruit is a miracle of sweetness, with a complex flavor and just-the-right acidic edge. Its skin slips off as easily as Britney's clothes. This winter treat never seems to elicit the ecstatic swooning and drooling that greets summer's cherries and peaches, or the first strawberries of spring.Ī good tangerine - or mandarin, another word for the same group of citrus fruits - is a thing of beauty, in orangey shades from honeyed gold to near red.
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