Supplies of tangerines out of Florida continue to be steady with better fruit quality coming on. “The season started off in early September with some early varietals and the quality was decent,” says Jeff Stachelek of Noble Citrus, noting that that early crop sized smaller. “We have switched into another varietal that held up nicely.”
Juicy Crunch tangerines.
Noble Citrus is currently selling its “New Generation” tangerine varietal and awaiting the start of its proprietary varietal Autumn Honey, a juicy tangerine with Brix around 13-15. This variety will get underway in the Thanksgiving week or slightly before and run through the end of December. Next up is the company's Juicy Crunch tangerine varietal, which runs from early January into February.
Balanced sizing
In terms of overall supply, Autumn Honey and Juicy Crunch will be 30-50 percent more than last year--last year's crop was greatly impacted by Hurricane Ian. "We will have very large fruit but also a nice balance in sizing available,” says Stachelek. “Our Autumn Honey and Juicy Crunch will be big in size. We’ll have 64s, 80s, etc. and they’re excellent juicers as well.”
The Autumn Honey tangerine.
A few recent cold spells in the state are helping with balancing the ratio of acid-Brix within the fruit. “The fruit “shivers” at night, which drives the acid down and increases the taste so we’re seeing better flavor come through. Typically, we wait for that to happen in mid-November and that’s already happening. We’re seeing 13 Brix already on some of the Autumn Honeys we’ve cut,” says Stachelek, adding that it's also anticipating an early start for its Juicy Crunches.
For more information:
Jeff Stachelek
Noble Citrus
jstachelek@wgroe.com
https://noblecitrus.com/