Mango? Orange? It's Both!

Looking back at my posts over the last month or so, I’ve realized that they’ve all been about food. This hasn’t been intentional, trust me, and I hope you don’t mind. My last few posts have actually been responses to questions from Meebo questions, and it seems like everyone wants to know more about fruit! Monday evening, a Meebo patron left a question for us that follows this very trend. Our Meebo patron wants to know more about a fruit that tastes like an orange and mango and is grown in Florida.

After searching high and low, I’ve discovered that a fruit called a mango orange actually does exist, though it appears to be extremely rare. I couldn’t find much information about them beyond descriptions of what they look and taste like. According to the Deer Creek Heights Ranch, an organic citrus farm in Terra Bella, CA, this variety of orange originates from North Africa, near the Mediterranean Sea. Here’s the description of the orange as it appears on the Deer Creek Heights Ranch website:

“The Mango orange is a sub-acid orange that allows those that cannot otherwise eat citrus fruit to do so. It is still high in Vitamin C and has a very delicate and sweet flavor that will remind you of mangos, hence the name that we have given it. It has a soft pink ring around the outside of the flesh that makes it very appealing to the eye. It is sometimes used as a garnish in some upscale restaurants.”

Like I said earlier, it’s a rare fruit. Deer Creek Heights claims to be one of the only commercial growers of it. If you find the idea of a mango orange intriguing, and you feel like you just have to try one, you have a few options. If you live in or near a city with a Whole Foods grocery store, you could try your luck there. I came across a blogger who bought some mango oranges there and even snapped a photo of them once she got them home:

 

The blogger, a literary mom named Beth, says that they taste fine but don’t have much of a mango taste.

You could also order them directly from Deer Creek Heights Ranch via its website. They don’t list a price on their website, but From the Farm, an online farmer’s market, sells them also and currently lists a selling price of $32.95 per 9-pound box, so there’s another option right there.

So, if you want to try something new and you ever get the opportunity to try a mango orange, why not go for it? It could turn out to be a new favorite food for you. And if you’ve already tried one, let us know what you think about them!

Sources: 
www.deercreekheightsranch.com
www.fromthefarm.com
remarkablydomestic.com