Product Review: oroblanco

One of our neighbors, who participates in a program called Bountiful Baskets. It is a co-op for providing bread and produce at cheap prices.[1] Sometimes the share with us things from their basket. One of the fruits they've shared with us was called an oroblanco. The name is Spanish for "white gold". It's a cross between a pomelo (Citrus maxima Merr.) and a grapefruit (Citrus × paradisi Macfad. [2]). It's smaller than both, but it retains the thick rind and green skin of the pomelo.

My verdict: The flesh is less bitter than other varieties of grapefruit, but it was mild overall, so I still had to add sugar to bring out the flavor. The segments were small and hard to slice out, even with a grapefruit spoon. And it had lots of little seeds—too many to avoid, so I was constantly spitting them out. Bitter grapefruits don't bother me (just add more sugar), so I'll stick to varieties that have larger segments and fewer seeds.

---

Notes:

[1] Learn more at http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/.

[2] The grapefruit is, itself, a cross between a pomelo (Citrus maxima Merr.) and an orange (Citrus × sinensis (L.) Osbeck). The orange is a cross between a pomelo (Citrus maxima Merr.) and a mandarin (Citrus reticulata Blanco). So it appears that what is really going on is that breeders are backcrossing to restore most of the pomelo's genetic background.