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?

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.)

RECIPES

Preserved Kumquats
Tri-Color Winter Salad with Kumquats