Week 07, 2016
TASTIEST FRUIT THIS WEEK:
- Blood Oranges – Ippolito Tarocco from Sicily
FOUR FRUIT with FABULOUS FLAVOUR:
- Pink Grapefruit – Ruby Red from Florida
- Mandarins – Murcott from Spain
- Black Grapes – South African Sable and Melody
- Plums – FlavorKing from South Africa
Oranges: Italian blood oranges have been available for a few weeks and are still fabulous, particularly Tarocco, and especially Ippolita Tarocco (seen in Waitrose).
Grapefruit: The Florida Pink, usually variety Ruby Red, is sweet, juicy, flavoursome, and available in most stores at decent prices.
Mandarins: Murcott mandarins are starting to appear from Spain. These are among the last of the season: delicious with thin, deep orange peel, and intensely sweet flesh (seen at present in Aldi). Nadorcott mandarins also continue to be a treat, and good samples of Orri and Tangold are still on sale.
Plums: South African FlavorKing plums are now widely available and well-priced: bubble-gum flavoured at their best. Remember to let them soften properly in your fruit bowl to get the best sweetness and succulence.
Grapes: Sable and Melody continue to be the best tasting grapes available, both are black grapes from South Africa.
The red grapes, Sweet Celebration and Krissy, are also delicious, if you can find them.
OTHER NEWS:
Apples: 30 varieties of apples were spotted in UK supermarkets this week, ranging from 9 in Aldi to 16 in Morrisons and Waitrose. It’s a choice that allows everyone to find a favourite, with 8 varieties on sale in all supermarkets. These common varieties are:
- Golden Delicious, Gala and Pink Lady, which are sweet;
- Braeburn, Cox and Jazz, which have good acid/sugar balance;
- Granny Smith, which tends to be quite tangy;
- Bramley, the famous cooking apple.
The other 22 varieties are an interesting mix of new and old varieties, and different textures, flavours and sugar/acid balances. Each supermarket has chosen their own range, so always look carefully at the label for the variety name to make sure you know what you are buying.
Figs: The baby fig, Ronde de Bordeaux from South Africa makes a lovely, tasty snack and is available in a number of supermarkets, as is Evita, a standard fig, also from South Africa.
Cherimoya: Try Cherimoya from Spain (in independent ethnic grocers or Asda) for flavour with a difference.
Avocado: Pinkerton (from Israel), the only green-skin avocado on sale, is consistently stocked in Waitrose and occasionally in Sainsbury and Tesco: it makes a nice change from Hass.
Mango: There is a choice of one mango only at present: variety Kent from Peru. These are sweet, juicy, plump, but not the most flavoursome of mangoes. However, being well advanced in the season, they are reliable, mature and ripening evenly, so worth buying.
©Good Fruit Guide 2016. Recommendations on fruit varieties and types with the very best taste are personal to the editor of Good Fruit Guide, and do not attempt to be exhaustive or supported by verifiable consumer research. The highlighting of fruit with the very best taste in the opinion of the editor is not intended as a judgement on the taste of varieties and types of fruit not mentioned.