Ponkan
Citrus reticulata · Citrus
Top 10 pairings
The ponkan is the big, aromatic loose-skinned mandarin known as the Chinese honey orange — a distinct old mandarin type, not a satsuma or clementine, with a puffy, bumpy rind that slips off in the hand and eats intensely sweet, richly perfumed and low in acid. Widely grown across southern China, India, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and Brazil, it is one of the most important fresh-eating mandarins in the world and a classic New Year and gift fruit across East Asia.
Picking a good onedrag
Heavy, taut, deep orangePuffed, light, drying inside
Shop freshEveryday bestSnacking, gift bowls, segments over a salad or a cake.
Weight in handSolid, the loose rind just sliding over the flesh
RindOrange and slightly slack, a green cast at the neck
The buttonButton on, the ring around it browning
Scratched rindWarm and floral, rounder than a tangerine
What you get from one
74%
Edible part
about 88 g · peel and pips out
119 g
Weight each
each one
Keeping ittap a temperature
Its own store is 7-10 °C: below about 5 °C the thick rind pits and then decays, and it often shows only once the fruit is back on the counter.
90–95%
Humidity
Vented, not sealed
Airflow