Honey Murcott

Description

Honey Murcott — also sold as Murcott or Honey Tangerine — is a mandarin-orange hybrid (tangor) of American (Florida) origin; 'Honey' is a retail name for its exceptionally sweet, honey-like character, and it is rated the sweetest mainstream mandarin in Australian shops. Fruit are medium-sized with a deep orange colour and a thin but slightly tight rind, and the flesh is juicy and aromatic. Flavour is rich, sweet and low-acid at peak ripeness. It is a late-season variety (August to October in NZ), sitting Late on the NZ mandarin scale. The main drawback is seed: expect moderate to high seed counts with several seeds per segment, worse with cross-pollination. The tree grows upright and produces heavily — thin developing fruit in big years to protect branches and lift fruit size. Use is multi-purpose: top fresh dessert eating and arguably the best mainstream juicer, also good for cakes, curd and marmalade. A tight skin that loosens signals over-maturity; refrigerate and use within one to two weeks.