Sicilian reg & blood oranges at Caputo's (Bella Vita)

I first found these last year around Easter - a big bin of oranges, some look different than others, some wrapped, some not.

Seems to be three kinds in the bunch:

1) A regular orange
2) A semi-bloody orange (varying amounds of red streaks)
3) Blood oranges (I guess, they have quite a bit of red streaks).

Personally my favorite is 2 - just the right balance between 1 and 3.

To see if I could figure which is which this year I bought what looked like a variety and took some pictures and tasted:

The most bloody looking one:



It was wrapped in that wrapper. Not many were wrapped like this. Most acidic of the three and less of a "orange" flavor. Very nice tasting.

This is what the supremes looked like after cutting it up:




Next was one in a white wrapper:



This seemed to be identical to this unwrapped one:



These are the semi-bloody oranges. Probably the best oranges I've ever eaten. From what I saw last year the bloodiness varies, but here's what was in the white wrapper:



I didn't take a picture of the supremes from the other similar one as they looked and tasted quite the same.

Next the regular orange (I guess):



Note how speckled it looks on the outside. Quite different than the other two kinds.

Here's the insides:



Not bloody at all. Nice oranges, but not as acidic or tasty as the semi-bloody ones.

I can't guarantee that specked is always the non-bloody or what not, as this was a small sample test.

I highly encourage you to try these oranges, they are just SO GOOD!!!

I've been eagerly awaiting them and have been checking every week for the last month to see if they were in yet. Didn't find them last week but found them today.

Nancy

These are some sort of hybrid from Sicily. I've picked some up from Caputo's and agree they are swell. But true blood oranges are completely dark red inside. Not sure why they never caught on here. They grow pretty well in FL, as I understand it.

I had some completely 100% blood-red blood oranges from treasure island the other day. They made a swell sorbet, but I overdid it on the zest and underdid it on the simple syrup.

Well, even if they're not blood oranges, they are super tasty.

Frankly, I don't even like the most bloody of them all the best, so I guess these are more to my liking...

Nancy

Also, nancy, would you mind resizing the images so they aren't quite so wide? You can have them link to larger versions, but it kind of mucks up the page flow..

Blood oranges are a big hit in my house. The Wild Oats by me on Ogden off 294 started carrying them about two years ago. I kept hounding the produce person there trying to get them to carry them until either they gave in, or more people started asking for them.

I make mimosas with fresh blood orange juice and either Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Noirs or a Moscato d'Asti, depending on how sweet the oranges are and/or the preferences of the drinker. They look beautiful and go down quite easily.

kl5 wrote:I make mimosas with fresh blood orange juice and either Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Noirs or a Moscato d'Asti, depending on how sweet the oranges are and/or the preferences of the drinker. They look beautiful and go down quite easily.

_____Sold. I have a few blood oranges (I'm happy to say you can find them in most grocery stores nowadays) that I now know what to do with. Use 'em now while they're out there. After that it's back to Trader Joe's blood orange juice again...

I read somewhere that the taroccos had almost double the vitamin c as standard oranges. They actually had them at dominick's last year and were very tasty, as well as healthy