A Guide to Oranges

Know your mandarin from your moro! A guide to the different types of orange. We’ll tell you which oranges to buy and how to get the best ones!

Oranges are a thing of beauty. In our world of international trade and fast-moving air freight, we sometimes forget what a luxury these fragrant fruits are, but their colour, sweetness and fragrant juiciness was a wonder to many for generations, and all in the dead of winter when more local fruit was scarce.

For my grandparents’ generation, an orange was a traditional treat in the toe of a Christmas stocking, rare and special enough to be exciting to a young child. During the war years they were rare as hen’s teeth and treated like treasure.

A little later, an orange was a delicious, refreshing treat at half time during interschool sports matches, cut into quarters and the juices sucked from the flesh. I suspect that fewer children get to enjoy this treat today, which is a shame, because oranges really are something special.

All about oranges

So let’s peel back the layers and dive into the world of oranges!

They’re a subtropical tree, with a flowering season in the spring and the main harvesting period that begins in late autumn or early winter, lasting until the end of spring and early summer for the late varieties.

Did you know

Oranges need cold nights for the orange colour to develop. In the hottest countries, oranges stay green.

As the colour orange is named after the fruit, I do wonder what we would call oranges if this didn’t happen!

When buying oranges select fruits that feel heavy for their size, and have a snug skin.

The two types of orange: sweet and sour

There are two basic species of orange: sweet (Citrus × sinensis) and bitter (Citrus × aurantium).

All the oranges we eat are a different variety of one of these, or in the case of the different easy peelers, a hybrid.

Sinesis, of course, indicates a species from China, and in several Northern European languages, the name for an orange is ‘Chinese apple’.

Sour oranges

Sour oranges are mainly used for essential oils and perfumes. They’re too bitter to eat, with one main exception: Seville oranges are essential for traditional marmalade.

In the Middle Ages, sour oranges, lemons and limes were the only citrus fruits known to Europeans.

Citrus bergamia, the Bergamot orange, is a bitter orange and lemon hybrid. It is cultivated in Italy for the production of bergamot oil, a component of many brands of perfume and the crucial flavouring in Earl Grey tea.

Seville oranges

The most well known of the bitter oranges, is the Seville orange. It originates in Seville in the South of Spain, where trees line the streets and the fallen fruit litter the pavements.

Civil as an orange, and something of that jealous complexion.

William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing

Seville oranges now grow mainly in commercial groves around the city. They have a relatively short season, with the fruit only available for 4–5 weeks at the start of the year.

Sevilles are the classic marmalade orange and keen preservers look forward to their arrival every year.

Recipes with Seville oranges

• Seville orange marmalade – the classic British breakfast preserve
• Or to save some time make pressure cooker marmalade
• Marmalade tips – our collection of the bet hints and tips for making marmalade.

Varieties of sweet orange

Sweet oranges are a hybrid of pomelo (Citrus maxima) and mandarin, which arrived in Europe in the fifteenth century and were swiftly taken across the Atlantic to the Americas.

There are many different varieties of the sweet orange, including the following broad categories:

Blond & early sweets

Jaffa oranges are the number one crop variety in Israel and Lebanon. Known for being sweet tasting and good to eat, the Jaffa orange sold in Europe is usually shamouti.

However, the Jaffa trademark covers several other citrus varieties as well, and later orange varieties include Jaffa Navel and Jaffa Valencia. Check the sticker on the fruit to see the variety.

Valencia

This is the world’s most important orange variety, and more than half of the Valencia crop is used for juice.

Valencia oranges contain little or no limonin, which is a natural compound that can cause the juice of the fruit to turn bitter when exposed to air. Because of this, the variety is used to make fresh-squeezed orange juice that will remain sweet even after the carton is opened.

Valencia oranges are the only orange variety to ripen in summer. They are in season and available from March to September, but the best time to buy a Valencia orange is from April to June.

Did you know

Our English word orange comes from the Spanish naranja, just our oranges originally came from Spain. Over time, a norange became an orange.

Navel oranges

Navel oranges get their name from the navel-like protrusion at the lower end of the fruit, which is actually a secondary fruit. They’re a very common eating variety, available over a long period and grown widely across the globe.

Blood oranges

Blood oranges are known for a deep red hue in the flesh and juice. The richest flavoured fruit is grown at higher altitudes, where the drop in night temperature is sharpest.

There are three main groups of blood oranges: light, common and deep blood oranges.

Light Colouration in these varities is less dependable and usually varies a lot from one year to the next. Usually the red colour only occurs in the flesh, with no red pigment in the peel.

Common Among common blood oranges, the Arancia rossa di Sicilia” (Sicilian blood orange) has a Protected Geographical Indication: these oranges can only carry the name if grown in a strictly limited area on the eastern side of Sicily, south of Mount Etna.

Deep The three varieties most certain of blood colouration under a wide variety of conditions and most intense in pigmentation under favourable conditions are Moro, (Spanish) Sanguinelli and Tarocco.

Mandarins and easy peelers

Winter is also the best season for the many different variety of easy peeling orange. However, mandarins and their hybrids are a distinct species, Citrus reticulata.

All are especially known for sweetness and being easy to peel. Most people do not know one from the other. The three most common mandarin hybrids are:

Clementines

Clementines are a type of tangor, a hybrid of a Mediterranean willowleaf mandarin and a sweet orange. These delicate little oranges with a distinct flavour arose naturally in Algeria in the late ninteenth century. They are named after Brother Clément Rodier, in whose garden they were discovered.

Some clementines are seedless, making them a popular choice for children.

Satsumas

Satsumas are another semi-seedless mandarin hybrid. Introduced to the West from the Satsuma region of Japan in the late C19th.

They are considered the juiciest of the family and have a balanced sweet-yet-tart flavour. When you buy canned manderins, you are probably buying satsumas.

Tangerines

The skin of the tangerine is rougher and “pebbly” compared to the other mandarin hybrids. They are named after the city of Tangiers from where they originate.

A global crop

Today orange cultivation spans the entire globe. Brazil leads the world in production, but India, the US, Mexico and Egypt are also major growers, along with the more obvious traditional centres of China and Iberia.

In the US, the southern border from Florida through Texas to California produces sweet oranges that supply the rest of the country. Growers also export huge quantities in the form of concentrated juice.

A superfood?

So what is so special about oranges? Juicy, fragrant, sweet and full of vitamin C and carotenoids for vitamin A production, we crave them when we are aren’t getting enough fresh food. Bite into the flesh in winter and you almost believe you can feel it doing you good before you’ve even swallowed.

And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do

Wendy Cope, ‘The Orange’

There’s folate and fibre and potassium in there too, micronutrient flavinoids and next to no fat or salt, so there’s every reason to enjoy all the oranges you can get.

Juice is a different matter, of course, and you lose out on the fibre and take in a lot more sugar when you drink concentrated orange juice. You will still get the vitamins, but to get the most out of your oranges, you really want to eat them.

You can read a more comprehensive guide to the health benefits of oranges here.

FAQs

Enjoy your oranges

If my guide to oranges has got your mouth watering, you may want to eat one just as it comes – but when you’ve done that, here are some recipes to make the most of this fabulous fruit.

Four ingredient orange creamsicle smoothie – a morning pick-me-up

Blood orange curd – a delicious alternative to the classic lemon

Blood orange curd muffins – pink and pretty

Spiced orange pavlova – a gorgeous, impressive dessert that’s much easier than it looks.

Easy olive oil cake with orange – a Mediterranean favourite