February Blues: What best to alleviate those late winter blues? The new season blue-black figs from South Africa are the not-so-obvious, but delicious choice. The more obvious Chilean blueberries, full of flavour, packed with manganese, vitamins C and K, and bursting with anthocyanins, are the perfect pick-me-up fruit, but beware the presence of soft berries in cheaper options: best, as we enter the later season, to check as you eat.
FOR MY FRUITBOWL, I WOULD BUY:
- Mandarins: Orri from Spain
- Oranges: Tarocco from Italy; Seville from Spain (for marmalade);
- Lychee: from Southern Africa;
- Apples: Rubens, Smitten and Daliclass from UK;
- Pears: Abaté Fétèl, Comice, Concorde and Rocha;
- Figs: Ronde de Bordeauxfrom South Africa.
Lychee: As the most flavoursome fruit on the supermarket shelves, the lychee season from southern Africa continues to offer the best taste experience. Prices have come down as well, with Aldi and Lidl competing for the crown (around £3.99/kg), followed by Tesco (around £6.80/kg). Get them while you can!
Apples: Bored of the standard range of apples in supermarkets? In larger stores, seek-out some of each retailer’s favourite alternatives: Rubens (Tesco, Asda), Kanzi (Tesco, Sainsburys, Waitrose), Smitten (Morrisons, Sainsburys, Waitrose), Envy (M&S), Daliclass (M&S, Waitrose) or Empire (Tesco): all with something unique to offer.
Pears: Always a comforting fruit for the winter, we still have a good choice of pears while the stocks last. The Good Fruit Guides’ best varieties are: Abaté Fétèl, Concorde, Comice (and Sweet Sensation, a red Comice) and Rocha.
Mandarins: Clemenules is still on sale, but definitely losing acids and offering a somewhat one-dimensional sweetness. The delicious Orri from Spain is starting to appear (seen in Aldi, M&S, Tesco, Waitrose) as a tangerine. Nadorcott or Tangold are more or less in all stores – still a little tangy, but great varieties through to April. Lidl and Waitrose have been selling Nour from Morocco, a sweet mandarin that bridges the gap between Clemenules and Nadorcott.
Oranges: Don’t miss the Seville orange season as it will be over soon, probably end of February There is a world of difference between processed and homemade marmalade (see the website for recipes, Nigel Slater’s being the simplest).
Some Spanish Navels have still been a little sharp lately, but these tasty oranges are entering mid-season and should be wonderfully sweet. For the best oranges sold in the UK, look out for Sicilian Tarocco, the sublimely juicy, sweet, flavoursome blood orange, which, by mid-February, will be past its early tanginess.
Figs: If you are lucky, you might find the South African baby fig, Ronde de Bordeaux, in Asda: such a treat. Otherwise, other retailers are selling South African Evita, a good variety if mature, though Tesco have very nice Parisian black figs, also from South Africa, while Waitrose is sticking with Peruvian Toro Sentado.
All figs need to be well-coloured when you buy them. Any light areas on the fruit are likely to mean some immaturity and therefore poor flavour.
Peaches & Nectarines: The South African season is still going strong and good varieties are on sale: a safe bet for flavour and juiciness.
Plums: All plums are from South Africa or Chile. Look out for FlavorKing and Ruby Sun as the most tasty. There are several other varieties on sale, the main option being Sapphire, which can be very good after ripening and softening in your fruit bowl. Sapphire is being used by most retailers in their ‘ripe and ready’ packs: these will be more reliable than the punneted plums for ripening at home.
Grapes: The South African and Namibian season is in full swing but eating quality has been variable with some disappointing softness and sourness across the whole range of varieties. That said, the quality should be stabilising as we enter February, and there should be no excuse for disappointment.
The most common varieties are Sable, Melody and Midnight Beauty (black); Flame, Krissy, Jack’s Salute, Starlight and Tawny Seedless (red); and Prime, Thompson and Sugraone (green). None really stand out at the moment, though the green grapes seem more consistent.
Grapefruit: For a lovely mild, juicy and sweet option, lookout for Florida Pink (main supermarket chains). Sunrise from Israel is also an excellent red grapefruit, and for something quite different, particularly if you don’t like bitterness, try Sweetie, also from Israel (in M&S, Sainsburys).
Persimmons: Spanish Rojo Brilliante and Triumph continues to be widely available: buy the most well-coloured fruit and allow them to soften slightly at room temperature to bring out the sweetness and flavour.
Mangoes: Peruvian Kent is pretty much the only choice of mango at the moment. It is a very acceptable variety when allowed to properly mature on the tree, but we often get them after being picked too early. Peruvian mangoes, however, are generally decent in quality.
For more certainty of flavour, Waitrose and Morrisons sell a Peruvian Kent that has been left on the tree for longer before harvest: look out for ‘No.1’ or ‘The Best’, a little pricey at £3, but should be good.
Blueberries: The Moroccan blueberry season is just underway (seen in M&S) with fresh, crisp fruit, but there is still good quality coming from Chile. As it is late-season for Chile, though, there may be softness creeping into the fruit: it’s worth a quick check as you remove them from the punnet as there is little worse than a soft blueberry.
Strawberries: While there is still a bit of Egyptian fruit in stores, more and more new season Spanish and Moroccan fruit is available. Some of this new fruit is of improved varieties such as Driscoll Marquis and Viva Isabella, which should have some flavour, though the jury is still out for early February.
©Good Fruit Guide 2019. 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.