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.