The oroblanco is in season starting October and is available throughout the winter, making it a wonderful choice for anyone who doesn’t like the bitterness of grapefruits, the acidity of oranges or simply wants a fruit smaller than a pomelo. You can also add it to salads to add flavor. Ripe oroblanco makes a particularly fragrant and refreshing juice. Then you either eat the fruit segments whole, or peel the white membrane and eat only the pulp inside. The thick pith or albedo is removed easily along with the rind. You cut the rind with a knife to aid with peeling or simply peel the rind with your nails. How do you eat oroblanco? Just like you would an orange or grapefruit or pomelo or any other citrus fruit. The white pith or albedo and the thin, white membranes making up the fruit segments taste bitter. And it ripens on the kitchen counter in just a few days, sitting nicely in a bowl with a few bananas. Most important, it’s good to eat when it’s both green and pale yellow, although I have to say it’s a lot better-tasting and flavorful when it’s yellow. Despite being marketed as having a lime-green rind, the oroblanco does ripen to a pale yellow, pomelo-like color. The ripe pulp, which is cream-colored and juicy, tastes quite pleasant: mildly sweet, but extremely aromatic, with a faint, but persistent bitter aftertaste and just a bit of a tang. It has a strong citrussy odor to it, that you can smell on it even before opening it up. The oroblanco tastes a little like a pomelo, a little like a grapefruit and a little like a sweet orange. While the oroblanco is said to be seedless, you can find several dried out, pointy, white seeds in some of the fruit segments, but they are usually underdeveloped. The flesh is actually cream-colored, not white (as the name oro blanco – white gold – suggests). Inside, the flesh is segmented and covered in a thin, white skin – similar to oranges, grapefruits and pomelos. Between the rind and the flesh there is a thick albedo or pith, a spongy, white, but edible tissue. The rind is soft and smooth, slightly thicker than that of a grapefruit, with lots of dimples. Unripe oroblanco have a lime green rind that turns a paler, pomelo-like yellow when ripe. Some fruit are round or flattened, usually about the size of a medium to large grapefruit (but nowhere near the size of a pomelo). You can buy the tree online or directly from nurseries (it’s likely available in most areas where citrus fruits are extensively cultivated), but remember to research the variety’s growing requirements first. The oroblanco has been successfully cultivated in Israel under the popular name sweetie or ‘Sweetie’ since the 1980’s. Others soon followed, such as the melogold grapefruit. In the 1980’s, the focus centered on citrus agriculture resulted in the development of the variation now known as the oroblanco, or the oroblanco grapefruit or the green grapefruit. The oroblanco is said to have been developed by the University of California Citrus Experiment Station, a research project founded over 100 years ago and centered on the development of agriculture in California. Judging by its ancestry, it would seem the oroblanco is more pomelo than grapefruit, despite being called the oroblanco grapefruit.Īn alternative spelling is oro blanco, meaning white gold, a reference to its flesh color that is similar to that of the white pomelo and white grapefruit (although not actually white).Īnother popular name for the pomelo-grapefruit hybrid is sweetie, a name indicative of the pleasant sweet taste of the ripe oroblanco fruit – unlike pomelos and grapefruits, the oroblanco is aromatic and sweet, a trait that has maybe been passed down from sweet oranges. The grapefruit itself is a citrus fruit hybrid resulting from crossing pomelos and oranges (Citrus sinensis). The oroblanco or sweetie is a hybrid citrus fruit resulting from the crossing of the pomelo (scientific name: Citrus maxima or Citrus grandis), which is an original citrus fruit, and the grapefruit (scientific name: Citrus paradisi). While a healthy fruit for the winter, it’s best to avoid eating too much oroblanco if you are currently on diabetes medication or have acid reflux or gastritis. Other benefits of oroblanco include anti-inflammatory and digestive benefits from vitamin C, bitter-tasting compounds and dietary fiber. It’s otherwise modestly nutritious, providing only small amounts of several B vitamins and dietary minerals. The oroblanco is a good source of vitamin C and potassium and holds benefits for the immune system, teeth and gums, skin and blood pressure. It is a citrus fruit hybrid, like sweet oranges, lemons and grapefruits. The oroblanco or sweetie is a cross between a pomelo and a grapefruit.
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