Grapefruit? Orange? Pomelo!

I love grapefruits. I am often disappointed in restaurants or cafeterias when they serve grapefruit halves because that is simply not enough grapefruit for me. I will happily tuck in to an entire juicy, pink grapefruit at breakfast. Imagine my surprise, then, when a friend of mine told me I had been missing out on one of the grapefruit's delicious ancestors, the pomelo! He told me he had first tried it in China, but not to worry because they could often be found in American supermarkets. Despite his urgings, I went about a year enjoying my status quo of grapefruit before I encountered a pomelo while grocery shopping with this project in mind.

To the untrained eye, a pomelo could easily be a grapefruit. The key difference is that pomelos are the largest citrus fruit; apparently, they can grow to up to a foot in diameter¹, but mine was only a little larger than an average grapefruit.

Upon cutting it open, I discovered a pink, grapefruit-like flesh, but the rind was very thick and spongy. I cut away a slice and peeled away the membrane which was much tougher than a grapefruit’s. Getting at the flesh was a bit of chore – somewhat like removing the seeds from a pomegranate – but it was a worthwhile endeavor. The fruit was juicy and refreshing, but also very mild. Since it looked so much like a grapefruit, I expected some of that unique, grapefruit-y bitterness, but that taste wasn’t present. It was overall an enjoyable experience, but the friend who had advocated them said it wasn’t as good as the ones he had eaten in the past. I guess I can’t complain about a less-than-perfect pomelo given that it’s February and the fruit probably travelled across the country just so I could have a new experience.

Still, I hope there are more pomelos in my future. I can only imagine what a pomelo tastes like fresh off the tree. I wonder why it’s such a relatively unknown fruit. It is the source of grapefruits, yet I’ve never seen pomelo juice for sale or even a fruit drink with the flavor. In a world where you can buy drinks flavored with dragonfruit, jackfruit, and all sorts of exotic sounding berries, why were pomelos left in the dust? Maybe the name just doesn’t conjure up that Indonesian paradise. Or, maybe their time just hasn't come yet. In Khatchadourian's "Taste Makers" article, Hagen and her team did taste and analyze a Tahitian pomelo, which sounded much more flavorful than mine. Mine didn't have any "hints of rice, peppercorn, and freshly cut grass²" – or maybe I'm just not a taste maker. In the article, after tasting the pomelo Hagen concluded, “a good soda²,” so when I see pomelo-ade for sale in the Blue Room, I’ll know who’s responsible. I’d be happy to see such a product made from my pomelo, so I can’t wait to get my hands on an even fresher one.

1.        http://www.theworldwidegourmet.com/products/fruits/pomelo/

2.        Khatchadourian, Raffi. “Taste Makers.” The New Yorker, November 23, 2009.