Tasting 23 Kinds of Citrus with a Fruit Expert

Now the other thing is you can tell if a lemon is going to be really sweeter rather than sour by the skin. Now the reason... Tell me more. Hi everyone it's Lan. I'm here in the test kitchen with my friend Tan. Tan Trung is the fruit nerd. He's flown all the way in from Australia and I am so excited to have you here. Thank you so much. Well I'm excited not just to be here but to be amongst all of the citrus that you've found from the obscure like pomelos or Buddha's hand to the original citron, the etrog. I'm really happy to be here. It's so exciting. So Tan is a fruit expert. He's a TV presenter. He's a cookbook author. So what we're going to do today is dive into all this fruit, open it up, taste it and hopefully give you an idea of what this stuff smells and tastes like and hopefully offer you a peek into what the world of citrus can offer and maybe some shopping tips to make your winter a little bit brighter. I can't wait to get started. So I thought we would start with this citron, the first citrus. The original, the OG. It's a rare antique if you will and so all of this citrus here has come from this here, the citron. Now it's rarely ever used these days. Now the main difference between the citron and many of these different citrus is the aroma, the perfume that comes from the zest of the skin. I always have this tip line. I don't know what you do. I scrape it with my finger and then let the perfumes burst in the air. What do you think? It's so floral and like light. It's like the top note of a perfume. It is and it's very clean. It has slight bitter notes to it. It has a very thick skin. So as you can see, if you compare it to say something like this line here, much thinner skin, it's something that humans have cultivated to make it easy for us to squeeze, get more juice out of. This is much heavier. Let's cut this open. Wow. That is really interesting. It's more orangey than I expected. You know that's actually so much more aromatic now that you've cut it. It's kind of burst all those volatiles. Now volatiles in the skin of citrus is what we're after. This would be great over like a martini. I would consider that perfectly unripe. And what I mean by that is it's not really sweet. It's not really sour. It offers only the aromatics. There's shockingly little flavor. There's like no bitterness, no sweetness, no acidity, but it smells amazing. Yes. It's actually very dry. If you look at these segments, there's pulps in there. You can almost see through them right now. There is actually no juice running. This is the fantastic base for all the citrus that we're going to test after, because now we've got a base to kind of go, Oh, that's how humans have changed citrus. That's how time and nature has changed. Humans decided to go this way. Interesting. If you were to imagine a chart where like, um, the X axis is how juicy or dry it is. And the Y axis is how sour or sweet it is. Where would you stick it? I think it is really quite dry. There aren't many citrus that are more dry than this. It's on the dry side in terms of sweetness and sourness. It feels sweet because there isn't as much acid. So I'm going to put it on the slightly sweeter, but pretty much the neutral end of, of it all. I'm sort of interested to see how this chart feels out. Yeah. So I thought we'd stick with the yellow, but go to something a little bit more familiar. I've got three lemons for you. What do you think? I'm really excited because one thing that I love to tell and teach is how do you choose the best lemon? We don't want a lemon that is dry, right? I have so many questions because we don't want to, you know, cut it open and then start squeezing and there's barely any juice. So what I tend to say is that you need to use all your senses, not just your eyes. Remember that juice equates to weight. So if you're at the shops and you kind of feel one and it's light, it's going to be dry inside. If you hold two, one is lighter than the other. Choose the heavy one. That's right. Choose the heavy one. So you want to use your sense of touch. Okay. Now the other thing is you can tell if a lemon is going to be really sweeter rather than sour by the skin. Now the reason that the reason is because when the lemon is on the tree, it starts off very bumpy and as it gets ripe, it starts to plump out and the skin starts to smooth. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now as the skin starts to smooth, it also starts to become thin. And so when you squeeze it, you can actually feel the juice. But if you squeeze it and it's really hard, it's actually unripe. There are a few tips for lemon. So we've got three lemons here. Now I want you to actually feel these two lemons. And the reason is because, because they're different cultivars, you're going to notice very differences in how soft they are. Yeah, this, um, this feels a little rubbery. And this has kind of a smoother, it's not velvety, but it's softer. It's much softer. Yeah. And so this is the more common lemon you'll find because of the fact that it needs to be transported across the States to many different cities. It's got a thicker skin so that it can outlast all that transport. Whilst this is less common, the Maya is much less common and it'll bruise. So you're more likely to find this in a backyard. And because of its orange blush, it looks beautiful on a tree. Yeah. My sister's got one, uh, she's out in California and it feels like all Californians have a lemon or a lime tree, all of them. If you've got a Maya lemon like this, it's going to taste very different from a Lisbon. Now you, you haven't even explained why you're cutting it this way. Cause it is a much more efficient way of cutting a lemon. This is just how I've always done it. I've never thought about it. You've never thought about it. Okay. Which is wild. Well, let me get another lemon and I'll cut it to compare. So Lance cut it that way. And I'm going to cut it this way to show why you shouldn't cut it this way. Because when you do cut this into a wedge, you're only going to get the top segments. If we squeeze like this, it's only going to get those two segments and the ones behind are going to be trapped. They're almost identical in terms of their shape, their size, their juice. You can see here that this one is a little bit more juicy and that that's actually because of the type of citrus this is. This is half a Mandarin and half a lemon. Okay. And that's why you're smelling that there's more sweet aromatics rather than the more sour aromatics. Yeah. Let's taste the regular lemon to give us a base and then try Meyer lemon. Okay. That is very puckery. Let's try the Meyer. Okay. It's so fruity. I know they're both fruits, but this is fruitier. Okay. So back to our chart, where would you plot the lemon and the Meyer lemon? Well, both of these are definitely in the juicy and sour segment, but I think the Meyer lemon would be a touch sweeter and a touch more juicy. Yeah, that sounds right. All right. So we're going to go from lemons to limes. Let's do it. Well, I'm really glad that we've got these two limes here. One of them is bumpy and one of them is much more smooth. It's got a different color too. Now, if you squeeze that and you squeeze this, you're going to definitely notice the difference. Oh yeah. This one's firmer. The skin feels harder. Yeah. So that part is going to be a little bit more dry and a little bit more bitter instead of sweet. There's one visual cue. There's another kind of touch cue. And so if you're kind of adding these small tips, it's going be 10% more sweet. It's going to be 10% more juicy. And all of a sudden you've got a 20% better fruit from fruits on the same shelf. And so what we have here is a regular lime. Should we use that as the base? We've got some calamansi, we've got some macrute limes, some lime leaves, which I love to use in cooking. And also we've got some key limes. Yeah. You know what? Let's start with the macrute. Okay. Yeah. Have you ever used it before? I've used the leaves. I've not used the limes themselves. They're just hard to find around here. I used to sell these actually a long time ago and I used to sell them to all my Thai restaurants because they use the skin in a lot of their curry paste. It's a very interesting fruit because it looks interesting. Let's cut it up because once we cut it up, we'll find out why it's such a different citrus. It's so pretty. It is really pretty, but the aroma is intense. Yeah. Oh my gosh. It's like smelling a starburst, but like a high-end starburst. A high-end starburst. Now what I can smell in this is the greenness. What people might define as earthiness. Yeah. There's like some sweet spices going on too. They're like almost like a cannella. Oh, these are so good. They're juicy. This is so much juicier than I thought it would be. It is very juicy. And normally it would be very dry and more often you see it dry. And the reason is because most of the time it's used for its skin and volatiles and aroma on the rind. I think if we try it, we might be unpleasantly surprised. Really? Okay, now I want to try it. Okay, let's give it a try. I'm a little afraid. I've set it up. Whoa. That's bitter. It's tart and bitter. It's got a sting to it. And it's got this, um, medicinal kind of bitterness, but this is not something that you would bite. It's not. That's hurting now. That's hurting. That actually burns. Yeah. It's, um, it lingers. It lingers. You're too kind. So if we're, if we're ready, let's, let's try the skin. Oh, wow. You know what? I actually think that's like Vicks. My nose is clearing up right now. You're right. It just kind of explodes and you can feel, you can almost feel the aromatics hitting the roof of your mouth. I think it's like a very mentholy flavor, but also a bit more aromatic and a bit more luscious in terms of its aroma. This flavor actually really reminds me of leaves. Absolutely. And I think, um, if we do go to the leaves, the leaves are actually a little bit more subtle. The easy way to tell if any herb is very, uh, aromatic is if you snap it and you, you, you rub it with your finger. And one of my herb growers always tells me this. If you can smell the leaf from afar, not here, it's going to be the, the, the, the perfume and the really rushing. So I crush it in my finger and then try to give it a smell. And I think it's a, Ooh, I can smell it. There's like a lemon grassy vibe. Yeah. So what's your take on calamansi? Why don't we stick with like Southeast Asia? Yeah, sure. So calamansi is a very much a loved Filipino citrus used to kind of cut through any heavy savory dishes used in salads. It is very sour, but these, as you can see, they've got that orange tinge. They're picked really ripe. Um, let's give it a juice. Okay. It actually looks like a Mandarin. Look at that juice. Oh, so it looks like a mini Mandarin. Adorable. So juicy skin is so thin. What I love about calamansi is that you, when traveling through Southeast Asia, you always find it in the garnish pile and you just squeeze it over the dish and whatever you want adds vibrancy, but let's give it a go. Same intensity as this, but fruitier and less aggressive. Yeah. I think there's more of that intensity and balance that we were talking about that sweet umami. I really like that. It's not aggressive. It's almost like someone took, um, like a tangerine Mandarin type citrus and then just crank the acidity up to like 15. While we're on little tiny fruit, let's, um, let's move on to these key limes. Sure. You know, I rarely get to work with them and so I'm really excited to have fresh ones. I want to just cut them up and taste them and see what we think. Should I cut into a lime as well so that we have a comparison. It's always kind of easier to figure out stuff when you can compare. Have a look at the regular lime. Yeah. And, but they're very similar. This one's got seeds and that's a seedless lime. Yeah. Limes are very different from lemons. Oh yeah. And I'm really enjoying the refreshing aromatics that are coming through with the lime. Really does taste greener. Let's try the key lime. It smells different. It's like more floral, more floral. Whoa. That's hit the back palate. Here we go. It's very clean. I feel like it's more acidic. Yeah. It is punchier for sure. It's drier. It's got a few more tannins. It's grippier. You know, we have a handful of key lime pie recipes where we tell folks, if you can get your hands on key limes, you absolutely have to use them. But if you can't, um, it's okay to substitute regular limes. You're not going to get the same sharpness, the same floral notes, but it'll be close. So back to our graph, where would you place all of these? Let's start here. Yeah, let's do limes because I think limes compared to lemons is the classic. I think that the lime is not as acidic, but in terms of juice, I would say that they're relatively similar. For whatever reason, lemons always seem sweeter to me. Maybe it's like, I would just scoot it like a hair over to the sour side, but totally agree about juiciness. Yeah. Makrut. Okay. So this is a very juicy Makrut lime. Atypical. Usually it is a little bit more dry. Clearly it's going to be kind of closer to the center in terms of the juiciness level. But I think in terms of sourness, it's probably the extreme only because, you know, it's not just extremely sour. It's extremely bitter. It's extremely tannin like. Totally agree. Yes. Yes. So Lan, where would you put the calamansi on the graph? Super juicy. And then it's very tart, but there's enough sweetness to balance the acidity. It seems more tart than a lemon. So further on the sour side than a lemon. All right. Last up, key limes. Where are we at? Key limes, definitely a little bit more dry as you can see. And it's definitely got that acidic punch. So yeah, more acidic than lemons and limes, but a little bit drier and on the drier side, I would say, but still juicy and still squeezable. Yeah. Okay. Next up, oranges. Lan, now almost nothing beats a good orange. And I think a good orange has the balance of intensity and sourness. The one thing that we all maybe are miscommunicated or have a misconceived idea about is that oranges need to be orange in color. So what I know that, just bear with me now, oranges in the tree are often green when they're ripe. So what you might find at the supermarkets or the shops is fully orange, but if you're at a farmer's market and you see a bit of green tinge, don't fret. With the same similar tips as before, what you do is you want to squeeze here and feel that it's giving. If it's hard, it's definitely unripe. So the skin is going to be thicker and there's not going to be as much juice. You want to feel in your hand that it's heavy. If it's heavy, you know, it's going to be juicy. Now, if we compare it to say another citrus, let's say that sour orange, if you feel the two. Oh my gosh, it's like a tennis ball versus a baseball. Yeah. Weight for juice, the give on the waist for sweetness, which means that it's ripe and also the skin. Do you squeeze at the waist when you're checking for give? Yes, you definitely need to squeeze at the waist because that's the weakest point. So that's already going to be, if it's giving here, it's going to be sweet. And if it's giving here, it's going to be even more juicy. But generally speaking, I hold it in my hand like that and give it a general squeeze. Yeah. Okay. So if I have oranges at home, maybe, and maybe I didn't do your squeeze test, will they just ripen on the counter? No. So oranges are already picked at their right moment. They don't ripen after. Yeah. Okay. You want to run us through what we have here? Sure. So we've got the classic navel orange. You can see it's got a bit of a navel here. We have a Valencia orange with a little dot at the bottom. That's how you can tell. We've got some blood oranges, two different types. We've got the sour orange and of course we've got the Cara Cara orange, one of my favorites. All right. Let's start with the two most common, which is the Valencia and the navel and explain the difference. So I'm going to cut the orange in two different ways to explain how the way in which we cut an orange can change our textural experience for better or worse. Stay with me. If you're not really thinking and you just want to cut the orange and you cut it through the main stem or stalk, you see how that main fibrous stalk is still there? Yeah. Now if we cut a wedge, what's happening is every time we have the orange, we're eating it with that main fibrous part. But if we cut it a different way, which is we cut around the stem, every bite is going to be completely different. So if we compare these two wedges here, you're going to have a much better textural experience with this one than this one, because when you bite into it, you're going to have the burst of juice come into your mouth immediately. No interruption of this pithy bit. Yes. And this pithy stalk is also going to be a little bit bitter. And now you can eat it and it is fibrous, but for a more nuanced and juicy experience, you've got to cut it this way. Oh, good to know. That's delicious. So one note on the pith, Lan, is that once we get to mandarins, we'll find that pith is actually required and an integral part of the flavor of the mandarin. Whilst with an orange, you're wanting more of that pulp. Now Valencias are another orange, which is probably the second most common snacking orange that we have around. Obviously they started in Valencia and they're more common for juicing than they are for eating. Really? Yeah. And as you can see, ironically, they offer around the same amount of water content as a navel, but there's something about them, which I'll explain in a sec, which changes them in juicing. So let's give it a bite. They just kind of fall apart in your mouth. They don't have as much texture. They're generally, the membrane of each pulp is a bit thinner. So when you bite into it, it kind of just all burst into a juice, right? Yeah. So if you love juicing your oranges at home, I would highly suggest you choose a Valencia because there is a compound called limulin in navels, which when you juice it and it oxidizes, it turns it bitter after about an hour. So if you're juicing oranges, you could keep juiced Valencia oranges in your fridge for a day or two and it still will be sweet. Valencias are a really good orange, but I do feel in terms of a textural experience, the navels win over. How about you? I totally agree. You know what? Let's go into Caracaras because I think they're a good new modern take on how humans have really cultivated fruits. I love this color so much. It just makes me so happy to see that beautiful grapefruity vibrancy. You know what? Look how beautiful you've cut it as well. That is just so appealing. I've learned from the best. All right, now the Caracara. Let's give it a go. Oh my gosh, this smells amazing. You get that acid hit, which is more intense than an Avora or Valencia, but it's matched with sweetness. I could eat 10 Caracara oranges. There's just, there's so much going on here. How did they get their name? Well, it came from Hacienda Caracara. It was a mutation of one tree. Really? And they found that this was not just beautiful in color, it tasted beautiful. And so they grafted that tree, which is basically breaking the arm off the tree and growing it onto more trees. And now we get to, we are the beneficiaries living in the golden age of fruit and citrus. Could you imagine being the person who cut into that first one and you see this beautiful blush color? I know. Give it a taste and it tastes as good as it looks. So speaking of oranges with a little bit of color, let's move on to our blood oranges. We have two varietals and I would love your shopping tips because I feel like when I shop for them, I look for the ones that are bright red and then I cut them open and sometimes the looks are a little deceiving. Yeah, it is a hard one, but it looks like you've picked really well because look at the intensity of that color. That's beautiful. In the industry, we call this kind of secondary color on top of the undertone color, the blush. And if it's more of that red, you're generally going to have more of that red color in it, but it's not a defined yes or no. But I think with the combined three tips of the squeeze, the weight and the blush, you're going to give yourself every chance to have a blood orange like this. Yeah. All right, let's go for it. That's pretty good. It's pretty good. There isn't as much acidity as you find in the Cara Cara. And that's a main feature of the blood orange, actually, that it's less acidic and you definitely get more of the sweeter tone notes that come out. Now, one thing that people might ask is, is it actually sweeter in terms of fructose? Oh, yeah. And the actual answer is it's likely not. It's just that because there is less acid, your taste buds trick your mind into thinking that it is sweeter, but it's actually just doesn't have that acid. So it's delightful in a very sweet way. Yes. Let's try the second one. Oh, this color is just like it's so vibrant. It's staining the pits like ruby red jewels of a pomegranate. A little sharper. This one's got a little bit more acid, but I do feel with blood oranges, they don't have the perfume, which I really love and say a navel or a Cara Cara. Yeah, it's I would have said there was kind of a flat pithiness to them. Yeah, there is. But you're right. It's because the the scents aren't there. You know, blood oranges. If you like a sweeter orange, that's the way to go. And if you don't like a sweeter orange, we have one of these. These are sour oranges. And you see them in a lot of recipes that are coming from Mexico, specifically the Yucatan, kind of that Caribbean side. They're mostly around. I don't think they're for eating, really. They're more for cooking. It's very perfumey. I feel like the flavor is quite acid, but it's sharp. I'm I'm getting a bit of bitterness, but it is quite like a watery. Yeah, watery kind of acid. Yeah, it kind of clears out pretty quickly. Yeah, yeah. No aftertaste. Very clean. Yeah, I can see why they use it in cooking. There's kind of a tradition of marinating meats and highly acidic things kind of for food safety. So you would see vinegars and sour oranges as part of marinades. Right. We've gone through oranges 101. So where would you put them on the graph? What's our easy one? Sour oranges. Very sour. Relatively juicy. Where are you going to put blood oranges? I know there's a lot of varietals, but they're definitely going to be on the the sweetest end. I feel there is almost no acid in there. In the juiciness level. I do feel like because you can almost taste the pith a little bit. It's probably not going to be as juicy as Valencia or the navel. Yeah. So clearly Valencia's are the juiciest. The juiciest. There's almost nothing as juicy as a Valencia. So almost hitting the top. In terms of sweetness, I would say that they're on the sweetest. Probably. Yeah. OK, great. Navels. Navels. You're definitely going to have them in the slightly drier section compared to the Valencia's, even though they almost are the substitute. Right. Just a little drier. A little drier. Probably the same amount of sweetness. Yeah. Yeah. OK. And then your favorite? The Caracara. Well, I think I think in terms of texturally, they're almost identical to the navel because they came from the navel orange. I just think in terms of sweetness, you'd have to push it a bit more, but also sourness as well. So it's it's a hard one. All right. Cool. So let's move on to mandarins. Let's do it. All right. So mandarins and oranges, all citrus came from Asia. And so a lot of these are slightly older species. Some of them are newer species. But one thing that I always like to kind of demystify is that this is actually from natively from Japan. It's called Dekopon, but in the States and in Australia, they market it as a sumo. Oh, and that's because somebody owns this specific cultivar of mandarin. And that's why you often see. So if you were a farmer and you wanted to grow this, you'd have to pay someone for the rights. A royalty. Every it's it can be every tree or every pound of fruit that you harvest. So that's why you can often see, you know, little gems or cuties. Cuties. Yeah. Yeah. So mandarins are more of a snacking fruit and they have a soft skin so you can peel away at them. Now, over the last decade or two decades, mandarin sales have increased whilst orange sales have somewhat decreased and remained flat. Because these are more annoying to get into. Correct. We live in a world of convenience and, you know, a fruit like this is easy to put in a lunchbox for your kids. And so as a convenience option, mandarins are much more convenient fruit. But I feel as though oranges have that zestiness, which mandarins, they don't, but they offer something different. So we've got decoupons, satsumas, regular mandarins and tangerines here. OK, let's start with these decoupon. Yeah. All right. A really good mandarin will have a pith or a segment skin that adds to the flavor. So let's give it a go. That's delicious. That segment skin, it's kind of adding balance to the acidity and sourness. And it's holding it all together. So it's not all over hand. You are a pro. That's like I grew up in an Asian household. You learn how to do this real young. It's like peeling pomelos. All right. So I got most of it off. Let's see. You're right. It's flatter. See with mandarins, it doesn't offer that acidity which a navel has. So the actual pith adds a bit of flavor. It's not bitter by any means. Awesome. All right. Where do you want to go next? Let's do the regular mandarins. When you have these kind of easy to peel citrus, some of them, it really feels like there's a little bit of air between the segments and the skin. Is that something you'd look for? This is a myth, right? So with mandarins, let's say late winter heading into spring, if you're finding those ones that the skin is almost detaching itself, it might actually be dry. And that's generally because they do store mandarins for a month or two to prolong the season. And if it's separated, it's generally lighter. So you're using that weight test and all these things matter. Okay. Yeah. All right. Let's give it a shot. I feel like I'm going to be such a smart shopper now for citrus. Have you ever had like the canned citrus segments? It's got, it's like a fresher version of that. Yes. It's like more vibrant. It has more acid. It has more balance, but it does taste like a canned mandarin. Yeah. Can we move to these just because they seem so similar? They are, you know, a very common breed in, in obviously Japan, but the Satsuma has been made famous because it's one of the original mandarins. Now I recently went to Korea and Japan where they have a citrus museum, and this is a very old species of mandarin. It's a very thick skin. It does have a thick skin. You can see how much pith is on that. It's also got, it seems like it has more volatiles too. Like my, my hands smell of Satsuma right now. It's more savory. The savoriness is from the pith, right? Like it's kind of gripping it all together and not giving you that intense punch. It's like a grownup version of this. It is. It is. Kids like that. It's more juicy. It's a little bit more sweet. This one's a little bit more savory. It's kind of more balanced. Yeah. I like this one. We've got some great citrus here. Let's always peel with your hands. If you can peel with your hands. I think the visceral feeling of opening something with your hands, it definitely allows you to kind of have a better grasp of fruit. Do you know what I like about it? All of the manipulation of the rind kind of releases the oils and you get kind of a preview. Yeah. And it's just, it's just so nice. It's very floral. Now, the one thing about a tangerine is the segments you can tell when you bite into it, it's gripping onto your teeth and you have to work through that stringy fiber. And some people love it, but most people don't. And I feel as though we're constantly trying to find that, that, that awesome textural experience. Because the chewing experience kind of takes longer. There's more time to enjoy the flavors. Yeah. These are lovely. I think as a group, my favorite eating experience so far. That's probably the best tangerine I've ever had. Really? Yeah. We don't, we don't get them that sweet. They're usually much more sour than that. So American groceries. I'm so proud of you. I feel like these are so similar. I might just do Mandarin slash Satsuma. Pretty sweet. Pretty juicy. Yeah. I think maybe the regular Mandarin is just a touch more juicier, but basically in terms of flavor, savoriness, very similar. Where would you put a Sumo? The Sumo is a little bit more on the drier side, still in the juicy and the sweet side, I would say. But just in terms of the juiciness, just a little bit less. Yeah. Or the tangerine? The tangerine has more intensity. And I feel like the juiciness is kind of lending itself more towards an orange. And it's definitely juicier than the others. But in terms of the sweetness and sourness, it's almost more sour. Yeah. It skews a little bit to the lime side of things, both in the aromatics and the acidity. Lan, we've got some Pamela here. Now, botanically, they're called Citrus Maxima because of how big they are. Look, it's bigger than my head. I love them. I mean, imagine these hanging off the tree. But we've also got some grapefruits here. Yeah. I feel like when I was a kid, grapefruits weren't ever vibrantly pink. I think they seem less bitter. I don't know if that's a breeding thing. But also, bitter flavors seem more in these days than they used to. And between the two, I think we're seeing kind of a resurgence in grapefruit. Yeah. And I think you've explained it perfectly in terms of a younger audience would want something that is less bitter. And as we age, we love the coffees. We love those more dark chocolates. Exactly. So I think as we get older, an older audience enjoys the grapefruit more. So let's get into that kind of a ruby red kind of looking grapefruit. Yeah. So it's beautiful, right? It is. It's like a kind of deeper caracara colored. It is. It is. It is. It smells so good. It almost smells like what I remember as an orange. I think the oranges these days have become much sweeter. They've lost a bit of the sourness. And this kind of brings back that acid sour that I used to remember in an old orange. The bitterness. You can spell it. It's like a little bit pithy. Let's cut. Let's have a little tasty taste. I love how well structured the grapefruit is. This is like a cartoon grapefruit. Yeah. They're definitely fake. The pulp is just holding everything together. There's a bit of juice running, but it's perfectly balanced in terms of a texture. And look at that. It's holding really well. That is quite sweet. That is really sweet. Yeah. That is not the grapefruit of old. It's almost like something you'd want in a cocktail, like a gin and tonic kind of bitterness. Right? This is an extraordinary grapefruit. It's so good. Maybe I'm getting old. Now, grapefruits usually have this grippy tannin that kind of makes my mouth dry. Yeah. But I didn't really feel that with that grapefruit. So it'll be interesting with this gold grapefruit. I mean, look, they're just miles apart in terms of their pigment color. So we'll see how they taste. That's delightful. Extraordinarily sweet and bitter. This is more acidic. This is very sweet. I don't know if I'm going to be able to put this on a chart. They're two different. Yeah. The ones that I've had before are nowhere near as sweet. They're much more sour and they're much more bitter. It's really fascinating. I think it'd be awesome in certain dishes with the right accompaniments. I agree. Should we get to pomelo? Yes, let's do it. All right. Pomelo is one of my favorite fruits and not just because they break apart and look beautiful, but also because every variety is very different. See, this one here is a honey pomelo, often found in China, and it is very sweet. It doesn't offer the classic flavors of a pomelo, which is a balance between one bitterness, sourness, and mild sweetness. In the Vietnamese community, if it doesn't have all three, it's not a pomelo. These two are the more classic ones that you find. Pomelo is often had in salads in Southeast Asia. This one's more of one that you'd have eaten on its own. Takes me forever to clean one of these up. Do you have any you want to get into? Let's get into it. Please do not chop or slice a pomelo right through the middle or through the top. That's the incorrect way to do it. You slice the top off and then you score maybe like six times, depending. The more you do, the easier it is. Yeah. It's shocking how much pith there is. Pith, skin, and rind, right? And then once you pull out the first segment, you just pull sideways. Oh, you come in from the side. Side, and it's quite easy. Okay. That aromas. Try one. Start from the top and then, yeah. Oh, oh, oh, I see. Okay, here we go. You got it. All right. So what do you do when you get to this point? Once you get to this point, you want to remove this last bit of the rind. Now, you don't need to do it all, but then it's really important for the next segment because to rip apart each of these segments, you can't have too much of the top. You don't want to get through that. Yeah. It holds it all together. So once you've pulled off a lot of the pith, you just rip it so you can get to each segment. With my knife, I run it to loosen it up. You can see here. And then using your arm, that palm pit, kind of hold it and you pull it apart. You generally have these nice segments, which you can use as a whole to eat as a snack. Should we give it a try? Yeah, I love these so much. Let's give it a go. So this is a classic red pomelo. Generally speaking, it has that sour, sweet, very mild bitter notes. I love it. It's got a little bit of that grapefruit flavor. The bitterness is so much lower though. It's also, I don't want to call it watery, but it's a mild flavor. Yeah. I think it's got a nice burst of juiciness to it. It's not overwhelming. Texturally, that's why you want a pomelo. Right. With each bite, you're crunching down and releasing juices. That's right. It's a very visceral eating experience. Definitely a very visceral eating experience. So when we talk about flavor and texture as to why we eat certain fruits, in terms of texture, that's why pomelo reigns supreme over the flavor. I mean, flavor-wise, it's still got a lot going for it, but you're not getting any of the perfumes of a mandarin, but texturally, outstanding. Let's try the honey pomelo. Okay. So this is the honey pomelo. Obviously, the shape is a little bit different and that's why I could tell that it was the honey pomelo. I have something very silly. Go for it. When I was growing up, my sister and I, we would open these up, but you would open them so that they remained attached at the bottom. You had a little hat. I can do that for you. I'm very careful. I am not wearing this. I think there's a cat meme where there's a cat with a pomelo on its head. Now that you've mentioned it, I'm going to peel it in that way. Yeah. I don't know. This really does take me back to my childhood because we would often have a fruit plate for dessert. Pomelo was almost always on there if it was in season. The amount of time it took to just prep this thing, because all of the fruit, whatever it was, you'd have to, in a specific way, so that it showed at its best. This is too much. Stay right here. Yeah, we're going to keep this. This one doesn't have as much of a thick rind, and so I feel as though it's a bit easier to peel. Always peel from the bottom. Yeah, there's a little hole. Rip through. Wow. What do you think? Whoa. Super dry, super sweet. Tinge of sourness, a tinge of tanginess, almost no bitterness. Honestly, I almost want to use this the way you would use pomegranate arils in a salad. They're sturdy enough that you can toss, and they're not going to break apart, make your salad too wet or soggy, but they offer this fresh burst of juiciness that would be really nice. Yeah. Just in terms of the contrast between grapefruit, much more intense sourness, bitterness notes. Pomelo, you're lending yourself to a slightly more balanced mellow flavor, but texturally, again, crunchy. Each aril, you can just break this apart into so many different little segments. There's another citrus we have in Australia. It's called finger limes. It's native to Australia. Yes, yes, yes. They're so fun. They're so fun, and they offer this nice pulp of zinginess. Whilst this doesn't have that zinginess to it, it offers a pulp of juice, of sweetness, and just so easy to break apart and become such a textural element to a dish. Yeah, they're lovely. You guys can find this. Definitely give them a try. All right, chart time. I think this chart thing got harder as we went. Given how different the range is, if you had to group pomelo as a group, where would you put them? It is very sweet. It does offer a little bit of sourness, but in terms of juiciness versus dryness, way more dry than the others. We saw that grapefruits can vary quite a bit too. They seem juicier, maybe not quite orange level, but definitely juicier than pomelo. Sweetness, acidity. I think just in terms of the sweetness and sourness, it's going to be a bit more sour than a pomelo. All right, Tan, let's move on to some more unique stuff. All right, let's do it. All right, you're ready? You got your hat? I'm ready to go. So what I have for you are bergamot, Buddha's hand, and yuzu. Where do you want to start? Let's start with Buddha's hand. It's the most striking in the middle. Now, this is a citrus that there's nothing really inside, but visually, it does kind of feel like it looks like a hand, if you will. And I guess in olden times, it could be seen as something that is very auspicious. And I know in Southeast Asia, they use it a lot to pray to their ancestors for luck. I actually have candied this. It's all pith. And so in the same way that you would candy pomelo or grapefruit, slowly cook it down with sugar until it is just pretty much all sugar. And it makes a really lovely garnish. There's a little floral vibe to it and the sweetness. I think just in terms of actual processing of it, though, it is hard work, trying to get all the rind around each of these little fingers, you could say. It's got a nice fragrance to it. And ornamentally, if you do grow it in the backyard, it would look stunning. Oh yeah, so striking. Yeah. All right, let's move to bergamot. Okay, sure. So this is something that most of us have probably encountered, but not in this fall. No, no, you drink it. You drink it. Yeah, this is the base of Earl Grey tea. So they peel the skin, they dry it, and you get that floral taste in a tea. Now, if we scratch this, grab one and scratch it, you're going to get those same notes. I have to say, I kind of want to cut in and taste the inside. Let's go for it. Let's go for it. Because I haven't. Oh, even the juice smells like Earl Grey tea. Yeah, puckery. Yeah, but somewhat sweet. It's not as sour as a lime. Yeah, but there's like, you get the bitterness. The aroma is very strong. I would cook with this if I could find it. I've had to, you know, I've baked a cake with Earl Grey in it before. Oh, I know exactly what I would make. There's this British dessert called posset, and you're using some sort of acidic juice to curdle the dairy, and it acquires this like really thick, creamy, yogurty consistency. A vaguely Earl Grey tea-ish posset would be kind of fun. Yuzu. Tell me more. All right, so I actually lived in Japan. I studied Japanese, and I lived in Fukushima. And during winter solstice, my host mother threw this yuzu in the bath, because in winter solstice time, they thought that the aroma of the yuzu would ward off the bad spirit. So culturally in Japan, it's very significant. Nowadays, you see it in a lot of pastries and a lot of flavorings. You can buy yuzu juice by the bottle. I think it's bringing a lot of the stuff that other citrus brings, but the aroma is so different. Let's give the skin a bit of a scratch. Yeah, what do you smell? To me, it's also a little bit minty, kind of like something that I've had before in terms of a, I wouldn't say starburst, but almost like a candy, minty, mentholy. Almost, it's not quite eucalyptus, but I hear it too. Yes, yes. I think that eucalyptus kind of description fits its place. So this is what I was expecting. It's full of seeds, which is why... These are aggressive seeds. Aggressive seeds. You can't eat a yuzu. You need to juice it. That's why nobody's ever seen it as a wedge or anything else. Is the plethora of seeds and the size of the seeds kind of a sign that humans haven't tried to manipulate this too much? Absolutely not. And that's why, including the Buddhist hand, it's a very cultural fruit with more uses other than from a culinary point of view, right? So, you know, besides using it as a juice, it's grown everywhere. It's a native fruit in Japan. And that's why they do put it in the bath. That's why they probably would use the skin more as a citrus oil in terms of aromas. But this is not a snacking fruit, but very popular and also well-known. Before we go, let's cut a Buddha's hand just so I can show people what's inside. Surprise. But it smells so good. It actually smells fantastic. So we're going to skip plotting these. They're not really citrus you'd eat. Tan, thank you so much for coming and tasting all of this with me, teaching me, us all about citrus. It's been a pleasure. It's been a joy. I've had so much fun. And the world of citrus is so amazing, not just from the acidic, but the sweet, the savory, the cultural. There's a place for it in every cuisine and in every culture. I hope you guys have picked up a lot of information. You have to find Tan on socials. He's got so much more info about all sorts of produce. Where can they find you? At fruitnote on Instagram is probably the best place. Thanks for joining us. If we missed anything, let us know in the comments.