With their red colouring, blood oranges make eye-catching additions to salads, desserts and cheese boards, while their extra-juicy flesh makes them a natural choice for juicing.
Blood oranges have a unique flavour, which has been compared to a cross between oranges and raspberries. Depending on the variety, their flavour can be sweet or somewhat tart, with the three main varieties of blood orange including the tart-sweet Moro, the sweet Tarocco, and the Sanguinello, which is somewhere in between. They are mostly in season from November to March.
Discover which foods are the perfect partner for blood orange with our guide to food pairings for blood orange.
Valencia oranges
The most popular variety of common orange, the Valencia is the go-to orange for the perfect, freshly-squeezed OJ. Despite their name, these sweet, extra-juicy oranges were actually created in California in the 1800s. Unusually, this variety is harvested in summer, and is in season from March to July.
Seville oranges
The best-known type of bitter orange, the Seville has a tart, bitter flavour, making it perfect for marmalade. It is also used to flavour orange liqueurs like Curaçao and Grand Marnier, and the peels are used in fish or pork marinades, salad dressings and sauces. Seville oranges are in season from December to February.
Mandarin oranges
Although they are usually referred to as ‘mandarin oranges’, mandarins are actually a completely different citrus fruit. In fact, they are an ancestor of true oranges, which are a hybrid of the mandarin and another citrus fruit called a pomelo. Their flavour is very similar to a particularly sweet orange, however, and so these two fruits are typically grouped together. Smaller, sweeter and easier to peel than true oranges, the mandarin is perfect for snacking and adding to desserts.
Tangerines
Again, not a true orange, the tangerine is actually a variety of mandarin. They are larger and slightly tarter than most mandarins, but still smaller and sweeter than most varieties of true orange. Known for their distinctive, slightly flattened shape and bright orange, pebbly skin, tangerines are particularly high in vitamin C, and are typically used for snacking and juicing.
Clementines