Of course, in earlier times, humans survived the winter without the small orange vitamin supplements. But hardly anyone would like to do without mandarins in the cold season. Because when the days are so short that you as an employee leave the apartment felt in the dark night and enter only in the dark night again, the citrus fruits with the brightly colored bowl high season – and bring us a little bit of sun in the home four walls.
Not always you end up with the purchase, however, a lucky grip. If the goods have been stored for too long, we are still laughing at the shiny shell, but the pulp of the mandarin tastes woody, bland and leathery. This disappointment can be avoided if you pay attention to 5 small details:
1) First of all, tangerine is not the same as tangerine. For in addition to the mandarin in the strict sense, there are still clementines, tangerines, satsumas and minneolas on the market. If you like the taste rather intense and slightly sour, you can go for tangerines or the smaller tangerines. Clementines and satsumas are sweeter and have few seeds. Incidentally, these two varieties can also be stored for longer (about 2 months).
2) Once you have found your favorite flavor, it is now about to determine the freshness of the presented product. A clear indicator for this is the weight. The longer a mandarin is separated from its tree, the more fruit juice – and thus weight – it loses. If you are spoiled for choice, you should weigh the fruits against each other.
3) Another shell test takes the shell: This should be bulging and not too easily yield. A tangerine peel, which gives the impression of an oversized pants, is an indication of the just mentioned juice loss due to too long storage.
4) If one considers the break-off point at which the fruit was picked from the branch, it should look as white and soft as possible. On the other hand, when it starts to turn brown, the fruit chambers are already drying out.
5) If the tangerine has stems and leaves, then these can also help you a little bit. After all, juicy-green, flexible leaves indicate a particularly fresh product. However, the leaves wither very quickly. If the leaves crumble between your fingers, this is not a sign that the pulp is beyond the expiry date.
By the way, any green spots on the tangerines have nothing to do with the question of whether they are already ripe. The shell gets its orange color when the days in the growing region are much warmer than the nights. If the nights are too mild, the shell remains green in places. In terms of taste, the green spots do not detract from the small juice ball. In this sense: Grief, as long as Mandarin, Clementine and Satsuma (remember, as the other two sorts are called?) Still hold their appetizing cheeks in the supermarket!
