My Darling Clementines

A couple of months ago the Phactor commented on real versus ersatz clementines (here and here) and their differences from tangerines. Since then at least one batch in local markets, not sampled, helped confuse the issue by calling the fruit "clementine tangerines". Curiosity and their nice appearance resulted in a recent purchase of "clementines" from California, and indeed, these are clementines. How nice. The ersatz clementines were from northern Africa. A complaint to the produce manager got a bit of an irate response to the tune of "who had the temerity to question the identity of their fruit?" The Phytophactor, that's who, a real expert. Here's my card. Call me if you have any more produce needing identification.

Real Tangerines

A short while ago a blog was posted about bogus clementines and reached the conclusion that something other than a clementine was being sold under that name, probably tangelos. A new batch of these round fruits has reached our local markets, but so did basic old-fashioned tangerines, and since many moons have passed since last having tangerines, it seemed like a good idea to extend the comparison. The tangerines were slightly larger than real clementines, with both the distal and proximal ends somewhat flattened, but slightly convex and not as flat or even slightly convex as in the clementines. While the rind is easier to remove from the tangerines than form other citrus, it was still tighter, firmly adhering, than that of the clementines. Seeds were common, 1 or 2, rarely 3, in at least half the sections, where as clementines are virtually seedless. The taste was, well, tangeriny, as expected, but they are tarter than clementines. This in no way changes my mind about the earlier analysis. Tangerines are not clementines, or vice versa, but the store labelling can leave this unclear, as the new untried batch were being called "clementine tangerines", and in another case tangerines were subtitled "mandarins", which is correct. The stores seem quite oblivious to any differences, so it's buyer beware.

Real Life Fruit Quiz

Mrs. Phactor purchased a box of clementines the other day, but they didn't look quite right. First off they were quite round with a protruding nob on the stem end. Second the rind could be peeled away but it was quite tight. Third the network of veins around the sections wasn't evident and the sections did separate, they did not do so readily. Fourth the flesh, composed of juicy hairs, was yellow-orange, and tasted quite tart and more of orange than tangerine. Fifth most of the fruit's segments had seeds. Clementines are a hybrid and one parent is the mardarin orange/tangerine, but their fruit is flattened top to bottom with an easily removed orange rind, they have reticulate veins around the sections that are easy to remove, the sections separate easily, the flesh is orange with a sweet tangerine taste, and, as the label says, they're seedless, or nearly so. All of this leads the Phactor to think a smallish variety of tangelo, also a hybrid with a mardarin orange parent, were mislabelled (?) clementines and are giving them a bad name as they are not nearly as good. This citrus, whatever it is, has arrived only lately in several of our local midwestern markets. Have you any other opinions or ideas?
The decision was made to return them and the impertinent clerk, who had no idea who he was dealing with, wanted to know how anyone would know they weren't clementines? There are times one dusts off the PhD and pulls rank.