Right now, you can find juicy oranges of the local Tarocco, Moro, and Lempso varieties.
Sicily is renowned as a citrus paradise, and January is a busy time in the local groves. This is when the harvest of the "blood" local varieties Tarocco, Moro, and Lempso begins. Their flesh only turns the right red color when temperatures drop sufficiently.
What varieties can you try at our store?
TAROCCO
Tarocco is probably the best-known Sicilian variety. It has a very sweet, distinctive, and juicy taste with subtle acidic notes. It contains only a minimum of seeds and has the highest vitamin C content of all varieties. It is great not only for direct consumption but also for preparing fresh juices, desserts, or fruit salads.
MORO
Moro is most often grown on the slopes of Mount Etna in volcanic soil rich in minerals, which gives this variety its specific taste. It is very intense, sweet and at the same time distinctly sour, with a slightly bitter taste. Therefore, it is suitable not only for juices, jams, and salads, but also for meat sauces, sorbets, and cocktails. Its dark flesh contains a lot of healthy anthocyanin pigments, which have antioxidant effects.
LEMPSO
Lempso is a lesser-known and somewhat overlooked variety. It has a delicate, sweet taste with minimal acidity, and like Moro, it contains a lot of anthocyanins and is easy to peel. Thanks to its attractive appearance, it is often used to decorate dishes, in fruit salads, or simply as a healthy snack. Compared to the previous two varieties, it is slightly less juicy, so it is not very suitable for juicing.