Fruit Maven » Kumquat http://fruitmaven.com Your guide through the wild world of fruit. Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:07:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Meiwa Kumquat http://fruitmaven.com/2010/03/meiwa-kumquat/ http://fruitmaven.com/2010/03/meiwa-kumquat/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:00:48 +0000 Fruit Maven http://fruitmaven.com/?p=2109 If you think candy should include more hurdles in order to enjoy it, like seeds and pith, then this is the fruit for you!

Meiwa Kumquats are not your average kumquat. First of all they are round instead of oval and they are much harder to find. I suppose you could stumble upon them easily if you had access to the ever popular Kumquat Festival in Dade City. This site gives tons of information about the festival such as no date, no location, and a whopping one out of four stars rating. BUT, it is a “fun packed family event that lasts for a day”. Oh – and did I mention it is completely dedicated to Kumquats? Yeah – that’s my kind of event. Where’s my party hat?

sliced-meiwas
APPEARANCE 4 out of 5 stars

Small, round, orange fruit with a good number of seeds.

AROMA 3.5 out of 5 stars

Lightly orange and acidic.

TEXTURE 3 out of 5 stars

Firm, almost crunchy and a bit fibrous. Not particularly juicy.

TASTE 3 out of 5 stars

Nice complicated sweetness with bits of sour juice and a slight bitterness in the peel.

OVERALL 3.38 out of 5 stars

I so desperately want to like kumquats. They are small. You can pop the whole thing in your mouth. They kind of taste like candy with a little splash of sour and bitter grown up flavor. But then there are the seeds. What kind of tiny little fruit that is so perfectly fit for snacking, dares to include 5 or 6 seeds in each bite! GAH! I will admit that this one is sweeter and far more interesting than the more common Nagami Kumquat, but still – the audacity! (Also this claims that Meiwas have very few seeds so maybe I just got a particularly defiant batch.)

FRUIT
Kumquat		 PEAK
Winter		 PURCHASED
Farmer’s Market
VARIETY
Meiwa		 GROWN
Rainbow, CA		  

RECIPES

Preserved Kumquats
Tri-Color Winter Salad with Kumquats

]]> http://fruitmaven.com/2010/03/meiwa-kumquat/feed/ 0 Limequat http://fruitmaven.com/2010/01/limequat/ http://fruitmaven.com/2010/01/limequat/#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:41:37 +0000 Fruit Maven http://fruitmaven.com/?p=1427 If you like to leap before you look, then this is the fruit for you! Limequat
APPEARANCE 3 out of 5 stars

Petite (diameter of a quarter); pale yellow skin and flesh with the slightest green tint; lots of seeds.

AROMA 3.5 out of 5 stars

Bright, fresh, lime. Nice and not overwhelming.

TEXTURE 4 out of 5 stars

Thin, giving but firm skin (edible), with soft, juicy flesh.

TASTE 3 out of 5 stars

Crazy sour and extremely astringent. The peel has a nice candied lime taste, but it is overwhelmed by even the smallest amount of juice.

OVERALL 3.38 out of 5 stars

I hate to be harsh toward any fruit, particularly one that is so divine in a cocktail, but this limequat punched me in the face when we first met and I just can’t get over it. I’m not saying it wasn’t my fault, because it totally was. Being the fruit expert, or maven, that I am, I heard the word “limequat” and saw that it was the same size as a kumquat and got extremely cocky about my assumptions of the flavor. I picked these babies up from Specialty Produce (who got them just for me, by the way – walla walla!) and was so excited that when I got to the car and was driving away, I reached into the bag and took a hearty bite right through the skin and into the flesh. Oh my heavens, was I then punished for my confidence. It was the most astringent thing I have ever tasted in my life. It burned my throat to the point that I literally coughed for the next 10 minutes, while my red eyes just dripped with tears. I wanted so badly to laugh at myself, but the convulsions and the fact that I was simultaneously driving 65 mph (precisely the speed limit of course) required that I focus and just try not to hit anyone. Lesson learned: Limequats can be devious.

FRUIT

Limequat

VARIETY

Unknown

PEAK

Fall-Winter

ORIGIN

China

GROWN

Rancho Del Sol
Jamul, CA

PROVIDED BY

Specialty Produce
Specialty_Produce_logo

NOTES

Please just re-read the overall impression above and take the lesson to heart. Fruit is to be respected! Do not underestimate The Fruit. Ever.

]]> http://fruitmaven.com/2010/01/limequat/feed/ 2 Mandarinquat http://fruitmaven.com/2010/01/mandarinquat/ http://fruitmaven.com/2010/01/mandarinquat/#comments Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:46:19 +0000 Keri http://fruitmaven.com/?p=1393 If you avoid citrus because you hate peeling them and getting that yellow stain under your fingernails that makes you look like you have a fungus, then this is the fruit for you! Mandarinquat
APPEARANCE 4 out of 5 stars

Lovely, oval shaped fruit with a nobby, tipped end. Bright, juicy, orange flesh with lots and lots of seeds.

AROMA 4 out of 5 stars

The skin smells like spicy vanilla; the inside like a perfumy orange.

TEXTURE 3.5 out of 5 stars

You can eat the skin and all–so the skin is firm and a little crunchy maybe, inside is soft and juicy like most citrus.

TASTE 3 out of 5 stars

Skin has a grownup citrus sweetness, flesh and juice is sour tangerine.

OVERALL 3.63 out of 5 stars

I tend to be a fan of the kumquat so I was looking forward to trying the mandarinquat with great anticipation. Unfortunately it was a little bit of a let down. The main novelty is that you can eat the sweet peel. In kumquat size, where you can pop the whole thing in your mouth, this is great. But at a bit larger size, it just doesn’t have the same charm. I guess I just don’t have any great desire to bite into the firm, slightly crunchy peel of a citrus and then get a mouth full of sour juice. I’m not saying this fruit is bad, it’s not. You should definitely seek it out and make cocktails and jam and whatnot. I guess my expectations were just a bit too high.

FRUIT

Mandarinquat

VARIETY

Unknown

PEAK

Winter

ORIGIN

Unknown

GROWN

Grown

GROWN

Rancho Del Sol
Jamul, CA

PROVIDED BY

Specialty Produce
Specialty_Produce_logo

NOTES

As you might have guessed, the mandarinquat is a cross between the mandarin and the kumquat. It’s the Brangelina of the fruit world. Scandalous.

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