Whatever report I may have could be different from what you will get from your own yard, knowing how citruses are affected by their environments:
Amongst the pigmented oranges:
Tarocco blood oranges came the first place when it comes to taste, followed by Vaingilia Sanguigno. The Vainiglia Sanguigno was edible starting November, and to this date, March 20, 2007, it has firm fruits hanging on the tree, and it really got better as time went by. It is a superb keeper on the tree and improves in size and taste. It started out as sweet insipid flavored citrus with no hint of acid at all. Later as time went by, it got sweeter and fruitier, sometimes with undertones of mango taste, and hints of pummelos but no bitter aftertaste at all. This is truly a unique tasting citrus, acidless, sweet and very fruity all on its won. I only ranked this second because it still lacks the acid that most Californians love and we can find a nice balance in Tarocco blood oranges. Third in rank would be Moro blood oranges which has more raspberry undertones to the fruit. It is more on the sour side. I would rank my Sanguinelli the least this time. Although last year it garnered first ranking. Could it be the effect of Arctic Blast? Although the taste is still very good, it is not as good as the first three pigmented oranges mentioned. One thing nice about Sanguinelli is that the blooms are outstanding and that the fruits are colored as red as my plums! It is also one good keeper on my tree. Anyway, my pink navel or Cara Cara is ranked last, but these are considered excellent tasting already. The Cara cara is not a good keeper in the sense that when it is past its prime tasting, the rind got thicker, the flesh got drier, and the sweetness fades away. The Washington Sanguine and Red Valencia as well as the Sanguina Doble Fina have each one lousy tasting fruits, it is their first year bearing, and only one fruit each, so these are not statistically valid for any comparisons whatsoever, so perhaps this season or the next. I also have grafted more of these cultivars this year as I am impatient to taste test them en masse! As expected, never had enough left of my pigmented oranges for wine making.
The Oro Blancos and Melogold came out as expected, and when harvested right, my Melogold came out to be better tasting than the standard Home Depot Oro Blancos. Now that EZ's Oro Blancos are in full swing, the taste test results could be reversed next season. I was surprised to taste the sweetness of the Chironja grapefruit hybrid. It has the texture and feel of a pummelo, in that the way to eat it best is to peel it off and eat the pulps one by one like a pummelo. It is a bit on the dry side, which I like most, the higher the fiber compared to sugars, and very low bitter aftertaste, it makes for an excellent fruit filling high fiber diet. The Mato Buntan pummelos did not come out bad either, these are also excellent tasting, very juicy but has more of the bitter aftertaste like the grapefruits.
Among the mandarins, the clemenules came out to be the best, followed by Corsica series, Silverhill, Willowleaf, Gold Nugget, Yosemite Gold, Shasta Gold, then the Miho Wase followed closely and the Algerian tangerines, and many few others, and I would rank the Owari Satsuma in the last place, and believe me, the least tasting of them is considered to be very good already. When it comes to size and juiciness, no one beats the Miho Wase.
Was very much surprised at the excellent taste of Fukushu kumquat. It is larger than my Nagami and Meiwa, but smaller than the Indio Mandarinquat. The rind is sweet, the flesh is mild, but the rind is so soft that it melts like candy in your mouth. This is followed closely by Indio Mandarinquat, then by Meiwa, and lastly the Nagami. I hope to have fruits from my Nordman Seedless and Variegated Centennial kumquat this season.
Was also surprised at the very good evaluation by some friends about the Yuzucal (Yuzu and Calamondin) wine. Benny ranked it better than the Calamondin wine. Indeed the wine is more aromatic than the pure Calamondin wine. This year, my sudachi is in bloom. I have to sacrfice budwoods last year for some of you that needed budwood, but this time I have the bloom and so can't take budwood from the few branches, and will surely evaluate the fruits.
I have many different Navels and Valencias and couldn't keep track which is which when I harvested them in panic during the arctic blast. Will have a better report about them next year. Meanwhile, I have been topworking over them with blood oranges, which is my current craze.
