Overwhelmed by all the varieties of oranges to choose from at the farmers market last week, I was suddenly struck with a critical question: which variety of orange produces the very best tasting juice? Time to roll up our sleeves for a taste test…
Fresh Orange Juice: A Super Serious Taste Test
At our local grocery store they have a machine that squeezes fresh oj for you, but they always use the same (albeit dull) naval variety. What about all the other varieties of oranges? What about clementines and tangerines and everything in between?
Why have I never tasted a glass of clementine juice??
We stocked up on as many varieties the farmers market offered, and we set out to embark upon a super official + serious taste testing experiment (don’t forget your lab coat).
We didn’t have a fancy juicing machine, but the regular old hand squeezer worked just fine. It was so tempting to take a quick swig before we were through cutting and juicing all 7 varieties, but we persevered to the end (with just a few licked fingers).
Here they are, in all their juiced glory! Ready to be sampled…
Some notes on our findings (from top to bottom):
*Tangerine: Intense flavor, tart and not too sweet
Golden Nugget: very sweet, a little less flavorful than others
Mandarine: Very sweet
Blood Orange: Very tart and sour
*Cara Cara: The sweetest
*Minneola Tangelo: Very tart and flavorful
Naval: Less flavorful than the others, comparatively it tasted ‘watered down’
*Our favorites!
Conclusion: It’s a shame tangerine and tangelo juice isn’t a regular offering because it is SO SO GOOD. Also, comparatively to all of the others, juiced naval oranges are barely edible. The bar is officially raised for fresh squeezed orange juice!
Have you ever tried other fresh squeezed orange juice varieties?