Winter and early spring is the best time to buy citrus fruits like grapefruit, oranges, and clementines. Head to your local grocery store, and pick up the following. I personally find cutting these citruses in halves or wedges is the best way to eat them as they are juicier then when you peel them.
1) Blood Oranges:
Best eaten straight. Famous for their deep red flesh--which can very in color. Often used in cooking and baking for a sweet flavor.
2) Cara Cara Oranges:
Very sweet. Tend to be a bit pinkish-orange in color. The perfect addition to a citrus fruit salad for balance and flavor. It has low acid and a tangy bite behind its sweetness. It has little to no seeds.
3) Valencia Oranges:
Best for juicing but contain seeds.
4) Navel Oranges:
Most common variety of oranges. They are sweet, seedless, and perfect for eating out of hand and in salads.
5) Seville Oranges:
Perfect for marmalades. These oranges are more sour in compared to its counterparts.
6) Tangerines:
Juice for a sweeter take on orange juice. Tangerines are smaller than oranges and are great for eating out of hand, juicing, adding to salads, and great in a cocktail.
7) Satsumas:
These are tangerines and are considered a variety of a small mandarin orange. These are also seedless. When you buy this fruit, the skin doesn't have to be smooth and super tight. The skin is loosely attached to the fruit making it easier to peel.
8) Clementines:
The perfect snack. Are very small seedless oranges and are close to tangerines in flavor.
9) Kishus:
These are teeny, tiny tangerines--in fact, they make clementines look giant. Kishus are known for being as sweet as candy but are hard to come by since they are only grown in California and Florida and only available during the months of February and March.
10) Grapefruit:
Grapefruits are more tarte with twist of bitterness. They are said to be a hybrid of a pomelo and a sweet orange.
11) Pomelo:
Pomelos are the largest citrus fruit. Pomelos are said to taste a lot like grapefruits but have a more delicate floral taste than grapefuits
12) Kumquats:
Sour with edible peels. The smallest citrus. Make sure to not make the mistake of trying to peel this fruit as the peels are said to be the sweetest part. Kumquats can be used by pureeing them, making them into a cream pie, or making them into a marmalade.
Cameron Greene
Author