Author Topic: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges  (Read 10694 times)

simon_grow

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Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« on: March 23, 2018, 11:43:51 PM »
I would like to know a hat everyone is getting for their Brix readings of the various citrus you are growing. It would be great if you can provide the variety name and what month you harvested. I’d would be great if you can provide any additional info such as flavor descriptions or anything else you feel is relevant. Thanks,

Gold Nugget, March, 14% Brix
Tango, March, 16% Brix

Even though the Tango has higher Brix, it tasted much more tart than the Gd Nugget because of the sugar acid ratio. My pH meters membrane dried out so I can’t get an acidity reading but I’m sure the Tango has a lot more acid than the Gold Nugget.

On a side note, I like to cure my Tango and/or any other citrus that tastes a bit too tart for me by allowing them to cure at room temperature for about 2-3 weeks. The acidity level seems to drop off which brings out the sweetness of the fruit.

Simon


Vlad

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2018, 12:00:11 AM »
Simon, don't they dry out after 2-3 weeks?

simon_grow

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2018, 12:06:27 AM »
The skin dries out a bit but the inside is still juicy. I believe they do this with Dekopons. The skin would look much nicer if I waxed the fruit after harvest but I’m too lazy. Here’s a picture of some fruit harvested on 03/11/18


Simon

fyliu

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2018, 12:38:53 AM »
I cure some of my citrus too. The dekopon Sumo I get from the markets are still too tart the few times I've had them. Others keep saying they're sweet, so I'm thinking they can stand the acidity. Even the ones that felt cured were too tart. Then I ate a miracle fruit and discovered they were overdone and already started rotting, but still tart for me.

fyliu

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #4 on: March 24, 2018, 12:41:10 AM »
Simon, where do you get the juice to do the brix? I mean, is there a standard way like take it from the stem end or flower end or middle of the segments?

simon_grow

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2018, 10:34:15 AM »
Hey Fang, I don’t have a standard way of taking the Brix readings. Next time I take a reading, I’ll try taking a reading from the stem end and the button end to see if there’s a difference. I’m looking for the highest Brix so I would guess that the button end will have higher Brix if there’s a difference at all since sugars settle downward as in the case with pineapples.

Simon

Millet

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2018, 11:24:09 AM »
Fruit picked from the south side of the tree will have the highest brix count.  Fruit growing on the external portions of the tree have higher brix then fruit growing in the internal areas of the tree.  I have an in ground Dekopon but don't have the equipment to test for brix.  There is a link on the Internet showing a Japanese grower storing his Dekopon fruit in crates inside a shed.  I don't remember the length of time the fruit are stores to lower the acid content.  Also the Japanese wrap the fruit in white tissue paper while storing, further some growers wrap their fruit while still on the tree.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2018, 03:14:50 PM by Millet »

simon_grow

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2018, 09:55:52 AM »
Thanks for the info Millet!

I took one segment of a Gold Nugget and took a reading from the stem end of the segment and the Brix reading was 14%, I then took another reading from the same segment but from the bottom end and the reading was 15.5%. I guess there is a difference. The fruit was sitting on my counter for several days.

Simon

beicadad

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #8 on: March 25, 2018, 01:06:53 PM »
Dekopon/Sumo from HMart scores Brix of 18.5.

I noticed some batches were not as sweet. fyliu, maybe you got a batch that’s not so good. They are not as tart as other good tasting mandarins.

simon_grow

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #9 on: March 25, 2018, 01:57:42 PM »
I e noticed some inconsistency with Dekopons. Some years they taste more tart than in other years. There is also a big difference in the size of fruit. Some are about Gold Nugget Size and others are the more normal naval Orange size.

Dancy tangerine from my friends house, March 11% Brix. I’m going to start adding pictures to my Brix readings whenever I remember.

For anyone that does not currently have a refractometer, it is a great way to track the progress of your fruit to know when to pick it at its sweetest. If you keep good records, you can forecast what month your fruit will be ready. Refractometers are also her affordable at $22 on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01M1GLSSF/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522000391&sr=1-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&dpPl=1&dpID=417ht0vTBKL&ref=plSrch

Simon

jim VH

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #10 on: March 27, 2018, 11:03:35 AM »
LA Early Satsuma in Vancouver Wa. -near Portland Ore.

Brix level 12.1%
Titratable  acid level 1.6%

taken February 4th 2018

Millet

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #11 on: March 27, 2018, 05:58:42 PM »
Jim VH  with a brix of 12.1 and an acid content of only 1.6  your La Early Satsuma must have really taste sweet.

jim VH

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #12 on: March 27, 2018, 08:50:51 PM »
Hi Millet!

Yes, they're usually sweeter than the 'Wonderful Halos' in the store, though not as sweet as some of the other types of store bought Satsumas.  They're also sweeter in mid-winter than they are when they first turn fully orange in early-mid November.    The same measurements on January first were :  Brix=11.1%    Acid=1.8%, so the sugar level must rise for some reason even during cool weather-at the expense of the acid?

The flavor is also quite good and rather different (and often better) than the store bought ones-possibly our cool mediterranean  climate?  It's been in the ground since 2008 and the flavor gets better every year.


simon_grow

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #13 on: April 02, 2018, 07:00:49 PM »
Store bought Moro blood orange from March reading, 10% Brix

Store bought Cara Cara from March reading, 13% Brix

Store bought Sky Valley Heirloom Navel Orange from March reading, 15% Brix


The Moro was not as good as in previous years and this Cara Cara was ok but the flavor was not in its prime. The Sky Valley Heirloom Navel was fantastic and tasted like how a good orange should taste like.

Jim, how are you taking your acid readings? I would like to start including this info and I was just going to take a pH reading. Do you perform an actual titration? Thanks,
Simon

simon_grow

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #14 on: April 02, 2018, 10:50:45 PM »
Home grown Tango harvested in April, 17%Brix

Home grown Gold Nugget, April, 16% Brix

Simon

jim VH

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #15 on: April 03, 2018, 11:38:18 AM »
Hi Simon

Yes, I do an actual titration.  Last year I found my dad's old wine making kit while going through his effects and decided to try it on the citrus.  Brix is determined with a hygrometer, using juice squeezed from about six fruit to supply the necessary 90 ml volume.

Titration uses 15 ml of that juice, with three drops of Phenolphthalein.  Then 0.2N NaOh solution is added until the color changes.  Acid is determined from the volume of the Sodium Hydroxide solution- each ml = 0.1% acid.  Because the juice is orange , it's a bit of an art form to detect when that color change occurs, requiring careful observation and a lot of swirling.  I screwed up the first couple tries by adding too much NaOh until I got the hang of it; I found it  helps a lot to keep an untitrated juice sample to compare color against. 

Just For grinnies, I  also took brix and acid levels for some Yuzu juice I had in the freezer from my crop harvested in mid-November 2016

Yuzu:

Brix    12.2%
Acid     6.2%

I was rather surprised how high the Brix was

fyliu

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #16 on: April 03, 2018, 03:20:52 PM »
That's awesome! You sacrificed whole fruits for science. I just use a cheap brix meter from ebay.

Do you just make a batch of solutions and store them?

simon_grow

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #17 on: April 03, 2018, 09:16:45 PM »
Jim, thank you so much for the response. I wonder if a simple pH probe reading would give us usable information in regards to the sourness of a Fruit?

Simon

simon_grow

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #18 on: April 03, 2018, 09:57:54 PM »
Store bought Oro Blanco, April, 14% Brix. Very low acidity, almost no acidity and super sweet. Absolutely delicious!





Simon

beicadad

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #19 on: April 03, 2018, 11:22:21 PM »
Simon where did you get the oro blanco?

Did it have bitter aftertaste? That’s the part I don’t like about GF. That’s why I like pomelo better.

jim VH

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #20 on: April 04, 2018, 11:12:22 AM »
Hi fyliu,

It wasn't a complete sacrifice.  I only titrate 15 ml of the 90ml juice I used for Brix measurements.  I drank the rest  :)
One advantage of using multi-fruit juice is that it averages out inhomogenieties  in the distribution of sugar in a single fruit, and provides a good average reading of the tree as a whole.  The UCR citrus collection does that for the brix and acid levels reported on it's website.

The wine kit came with solutions pre-mixed; They keep forever if tightly sealed.  I'll run out of Sodium Hydroxide soon, though, but you can buy more either on-line, or at the local beer and winemaking store (Portland is big on microbrews, so such stores abound locally).
Or, you can simply buy some Roebic Crystal Drain opener -which is nearly 100% NaOh-and mix up your own  0.2N NaOh solution, if you're confident of your measuring skills and basic Chemistry.  You need a good scale.

Simon, yes you can use a Ph meter to determine the acid level, with some kind of calibration or conversion factor which I don't remember.  I found how to do so somewhere on-line when I was considering purchasing one, but am now too lazy to look again.  I eventually decided to stick with what I've got- it works.

Perhaps a new kind of sourness App can be developed using the camera on your cell-phone to measure the shape of your mouth and the number of wrinkles around it as a kind of 'Puckerometer'  ;).



simon_grow

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #21 on: April 04, 2018, 04:01:26 PM »
I got the Oro Blancos from either Mitsuwa Market, Nijiya Market or Hmart. I forget which one but I will be purchasing more this week and I’ll report back when I find out where I got them. They were not bitter at all. I hate most grapefruit I have tried with the exception of Oro Blanco. It is extremely sweet with just enough acidity to make the fruit delicious. I recommend OB for people that normally don’t like grapefruit.

Simon

simon_grow

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #22 on: April 22, 2018, 01:53:15 AM »
Home grown Gold Nugget Mandarin, April, Brix = 18.5%
Unbelievably sweet, low acid, deep rich citrusy mandarin/Tangerine flavor. The gold Nuggets in this state tastes better to me than Dekopons/Shiranui which I am also growing. I’m comparing to supermarket Dekopons because I removed all fruit from my Shiranui this year.

I only wish I didn’t harvest most my Gold Nuggets last month. The problem with leaving the Fruit on for so long is that it overlaps with flowering and can decrease next years crop. I see this as a good thing however because tangerines/Mandarins tend to overproduce to the point of breaking branches and inhibiting blooms or fruit set can decrease the need to thin Fruit.

Simon

jim VH

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #23 on: January 03, 2019, 03:34:45 PM »
Early St Anne Satsuma readings taken January3rd 2019

Brix: 11.1
Titratable acid: 1.5%

simon_grow

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Re: Brix readings of Mandarins, Tangerines and Oranges
« Reply #24 on: January 19, 2019, 01:50:02 PM »
Anyone have Brix readings on their home grown Shiranui(Dekopon)? I know a lot of people got scions from CCPP that should be fruiting already. I’m trying to figure out the best time to harvest these fruit in SoCal. Thanks,

Simon