Side-by-Side – Winter Citrus Juices

I call this blog Mixing Ingredients, but thus far I’ve really only talked about the ingredients that have alcohol in them (like vermouth…). While that’s the crux of any cocktail, the other stuff is just as important to the overall quality and character of the drink. So, today, I’m going to talk about seasonal winter citrus juices!

Dekopon

The dekopon is a Japanese variety of mandarin that’s actually a designed-hybrid of two other Japanese citrus fruits. As has become popular with apples, the name was actually a brand at the beginning but it’s now used generically. You’ll recognize it by a big bump at the top of the fruit, and they’re often displayed in grocery stores still attached to the stem with their leaves. It came to the US via California in the late 90’s and is now marketed under the Sumo Citrus brand.

By Itself

The bright orange color looks like what you expect normal orange juice to look like as a kid.This juice is a lot sweeter on the nose than I expected, but that makes sense considering how much dekopon-flavored candy you see in Japan. The palate is a very intense orange juice, with the acid not quite fighting through the sugar. It does finish with the acid though, and overall it tastes like you expect an orange juice to taste like, and people seem to love it on the whole.

In A Cocktail

I made the Winter Margarita with both juices. The dekopon definitely comes through in the nose as the drink smells like an orange grove (especially because I used it as a garnish as well). The sweetness comes through on the palate, but it’s fought back by the acid in the drink. If you like a margarita with a lot of triple sec, I highly recommend you try one with dekopon juice in place of some of the liqueur.

Melogold

The melogold is a designed-hybrid that most-closely resembles a sweet grapefruit. It looks like a grapefruit but is designed to taste more like the deliciously-sweet pomelo. It has very thin skin for the category, which makes it popular to grow and helped it gain commercial popularity in the 60’s. It’s the sweetest of any popular grapefruit variety.

By Itself

Despite the sweetness, the nose on this juice is all acid and reminds me of a good lemon juice. All of that acid goes away on the palate, which is super-sweet and has no real bite at all. Despite the sugar, the juice finishes very clean and leaves a general citrus taste.

In A Cocktail

The acidic nose of the melogold plays well with the lime juice, and the overall nose of the cocktail isn’t changed much at all by this juice. The taste, however, is much sweeter without getting any sharper. The cocktail is heavier on the palate as a result, and the tequila starts to hide a bit, but the finish is much cleaner than I expect from a drink with so much juice. If you like your margaritas sweet, or you’re a sucker for a frozen margarita, throw some melogold juice into your next drink.

Who Wins?

Overall, by themselves and in a cocktail, I prefer the dekopon juice. I’ve loved orange juice for as long as I can remember, and this is a stereotype of orange juice.

However, the real winner is a 50/50 mix between these two juices. The resulting mix smells like a citrus grove, is sweet but sharp on the palate, and finishes with a little sugar to make you want more. It’s exactly what my brain conjures up when I think “citrus juice.”