Get your own box of sweet little Mandarins

Whether you are drinking mandarin juice, or baking them into cakes, learn more about the mandarin flavor profile below to get the most out of this citrus fruit!

Citrus fruits are native to Australia, Melanesia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Enjoyed by humans for thousands of years, the history and evolution of citrus fruits is a fascinating topic to explore.

All of the types of citrus fruits that exist today seem to stem from three ancestral species. These species are the citron, the pomelo, and the mandarin orange.

Are you interested in incorporating more mandarin oranges into your diet but aren't sure about their flavor profile or what to pair them with?

Let's take a look at the mandarin flavor profile and what they pair great with!

What Are Mandarin Oranges?

Mandarin oranges are small citrus fruits that look quite similar to other types of oranges. Their shape is more oblate than common oranges, which tend to be more spherical.

Interestingly, it is believed that the mandarin was one of the first species of citrus. It is been found that the mandarin orange is the ancestor of a lot of the hybrid citrus cultivars that exist today.

Mandarin Flavor Profile: What Do Mandarin Oranges Taste Like?

Are you curious about mandarin flavor? These little citrus fruits are less hours than some other citrus fruits, and the case can be both stronger and sweeter. It has a thin peel, so they are easy to peel and break off into individual segments.

Mandarin oranges have a vanilla and spicy component in their flavor profile. They also have a strong citrus aroma that is fresh and pleasant smelling. More subtle than the fruit's citrus aroma are the fruits nutty, woody, and floral aromas.

What Should You Pair With Mandarin Oranges?

The only limit to mandarin orange pairing is your imagination. These delicious little fruits can accompany many different foods and drinks in a delightful way. Here's some examples of delicious mandarin orange recipes.

One popular way to eat mandarin oranges is in a salad. They also are a wonderful ingredient in variety of mandarin dessert recipes. They also pair quite well with fish and chicken to add some sweetness to a savory meal.

You can also add mandarin oranges to stir-fries to contribute both sweetness and acidity to Asian recipes.

Mandarin oranges pair wonderfully with flavors such as chocolate, cherry, cardamom, coffee, ginger, fig, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, star anise, and other tropical fruits.

Curious about the options for a drink pairing with mandarin oranges? If you are eating a savory dish that contains mandarin orange during the cold winter months, a nice red wine would do. If you are enjoying mandarin oranges on a fish or chicken dish, try a glass of delicious white wine.

Is It Time For You to Up Your Citrus Game?

Eating citrus fruit such as mandarins regularly has a long list of health benefits. Now that you know the flavor profile of mandarin oranges, the sky is the limit in terms of what you can do with them.

Try our seasonal citrus box while its available...the Craft Citrus Club!

Our Rio box is a 15-lb curated box of our fresh-harvested citrus from South Texas. The fruit is NOT gassed, rather it is tree-ripened. Our season runs from Nov-May for oranges, grapefruit and mandarins.

Our Grande box is a 30-lb box of either fresh-harvested Rio Red Grapefruit or Sweet Oranges from South Texas.

If you want to try out our fresh-harvested Clementine Tangerine Box from South Texas, click here!