2020-04-01_Readers_Digest

I Am Citrus ...

The Great

Illusionist

By Kate Lowenstein

and Daniel Gritzer

G

ather round, one and all; our

show is about to begin. Prepare

to be dazzled, prepare to be

dazed, but we warn you—we citrus

are masters of disguise and experts at

sleight of hand. You think you know

us, but no, you do not.

Behold this deck of cards. Pictured

on each card is a different one of us:

yuzu, kumquat, kaffir lime, and Meyer

lemon; satsuma, Minneola, tangelo,

and Sumo orange. What names! What

flamboyant colors and sweet, bright

juiciness! Not to boast, but have you

ever met one of us you didn’t like? OK,

there was that bitter orange you had

the poor sense to bite into once—we

admit, we can be astringent.

But all that variety is just an illu-

sion. Here, pick a card. Ah! You got

grapefruit, as large as a softball in

your hand and bittersweet on your

tongue. So distinctive and yet—what’s

this? Your grapefruit is nothing but a

cross between the pomelo and the

sweet orange!

This sleight of hand, you see, is

our greatest trick. All the variations,

colors, shapes, and flavors of us are

nothing more than a shuffling of our

four basic building blocks—the spade,

club, diamond, and heart of citrus, if

you will. And, dear audience, can you

guess the fab four? Not a chance, not

a chance! They are pomelo, mandarin,

citron, and papeda.

They all have their roots in Asia, be-

fore nature and humans crossed them

over and over again to create citrusy

Kaffi

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e

Citron

Cleme

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Po

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36 april 2020 | rd.com

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Photographs by Joleen Zubek