Mid-February citrus

This is citrus tasting post #4 of the season.  The earlier ones are here:
https://fruitsandgardening.blogspot.com/2018/01/late-january-citrus.html
https://fruitsandgardening.blogspot.com/2017/12/late-december-citrus.html
https://fruitsandgardening.blogspot.com/2017/12/mid-december-citrus.html

Today I collected ten different citrus varieties in the yard. They are Navel, Boukhobza, and Vaniglia Sanguino oranges; Gold Nugget, Page, Tango, and Pixie mandarins; Minneola Tangelo, Nagami Kumquat, and Red grapefruit. The first five varieties listed are ripe now, and the other five still need more time on the trees.

Oranges 

Left to right: Navel, Vaniglia Sanguino, Boukhobza

I'm going to miss these all next month, as there are not many of these left on the trees. They all at their peak ripeness now.  They all are wonderful. Vaniglia Sanguino is acid-less orange, but it has very nice and not-so-simple flavor. I can detect a rose flavor in it.

Mandarins

Left to right: Page, Gold Nugget, Tango, Pixie.

My favorite now is Gold Nugget, Page is very good too, but it is almost gone from my tree.  Tango and Pixie will need more time on the tree.

Minneola Tangelo and Nagami Kumquat

Both are not ready yet.  Will try them next month.

Red Grapefruit

It's getting there, but still too bitter for me. They should be better next month.

Next month, I should be tasting the five varieties that are not ready now, and I might still have some Gold Nugget mandarins too.

February citrus tasting

	Notes from me for each fruit, and from another CRFG member for three fruits	Notes from my husband
Pummelo
Hirado Buntan Pummelo	I liked it a lot, refreshing taste	fresh, very good, not very sweet, acidic (good)
Mato Buntan Pummelo	Not for me	Very thick skin
Orange
Xuegan Sweet Orange	Just OK, membranes are hard	sweet
Boukhobza Maltaise Blood Orange	Very very nice.  I liked it a lot, complex flavor. Note from from another CRFG member: "Good. It was speckled, which was interesting. I haven't seen that particular pattern in blood oranges I've tasted before. It was sweet but not much acid. Which made the taste less complex and more "watery" to my taste. It was nice and those who value sweetness above all would probably rate it higher"	incredible; deep color; like sweet grapes; not acidic
Moro blood orange	Nice, I liked the complexity	very unusual, smoky, sweet, not acidic
Smith Red blood orange	Just normal good orange	could be found at market, nothing special
Rotuma Island sweet orange	Small fruit, but excellent flavor. Note from from another CRFG member: "A good eating orange. I didn't know what I was getting into so I cut it equatorially. I think I should have tried peeling it and eating the segments. I lost some of the juice trying to get at the orange within the "half shell". Nice balance of sweet and acid. The mingled taste of flesh and a bit of the rind oils lingered on my tongue in a pleasant way. Seeds but not horribly seedy."	kind of generic
Mandarine
Encore mandarine	Usual, nice, nothing special. Note from from another CRFG member: "Easy to peel. Very little peel matter so you get immediately to very plump segments. Average amount of seed. Sweet with a little acid. Good. Probably great in a lot of people's opinion. I tend to want more intense flavors, though. However, the peeling and prep experience was excellent and would make this a good fruit to carry in a lunchbox as you could anticipate little mess eating it with hands only."	Oily skin, good
W. Murcott Afourer mandarin	Complex flavor, I liked it	Liked it better than Encore mandarine
Lemon
Pomona Sweet lemon	Probably OK for this type of fruit	with lemon slightly, not sweet, nice color
Lemonade lemon	More like a lemon	oily, unusual, sweet, with traces of gasoline
Yen Ben lemon	Normal lemon	very acidic, not for eating, for cooking
Lapithiotiki lemon	Too lemony	even more acid than Yen Ben lemon, painful to eat

My subjective notes from tasting of 27 citrus varieties

Harvey Correia brought 27 different citrus varieties from Lindcove and we sampled them at Ken's place in Davis, CA on Dec 18, 2014

Mandarins
Okitsu wase	good, sweet, membranes are hard
Dobashi Beni	very nice, membrane is softer
Harvey's Miyagawa	very good, smaller fruits
Miho wase	very sweet, soft membranes
China S9	has acid, maybe harvested too early, membrane is hard
Kuno wase	good tasting, not too sweet, membranes are medium hard
Xie-Shan	on the dry side, membranes are hard, but crunchy.  Maybe harvested too late after prime-time
Clementine Fina	nice flavor, but membranes are hard, too hard
Corsica No. 2	Very nice, very soft membranes, my favorite
Kinnow LS	Tart, maybe too early harvested, membranes are soft
Fremont	Very hard membranes, the taste is just OK
USDA 88-2	Very nice, balanced.  Membranes are medium hard
USDA 15-150	Very nice, soft membranes
Page	Balanced flavor, very nice, soft membranes, has a bit of grapefruit in it, another favorite of mine
Tango	Maybe not ripe yet, a bit acidic
Daisy SL	Very nice, membranes are almost not there.  Should get this one too, will try to grow from seed for now
Yosemite Gold	Maybe not ready yet. Membranes are hard
Oranges
Lima	Plane sweet, no acid at all.  Not for me
Cara-cara	Sweet, dark pink
California Rojo	Has a bit more acid than Cara-cara.  Pigmentation is different
Harvey's South Orange	Complex, nice, with some acid
Harvey's North Orange	More acid, more aromatic, maybe less ripe than the South one
Kumquat
Nordmann	Not too sweet, but always seedless
Tangelo
Pearl	Just OK
Pummelo
Mato Buntan	Sweet, but a bit overripe
Sarawak Tahitian	nice, sweet
Valentine	The sweetest, with some pink color