The tangerines available were full of seeds and therefore less desirable than the seedless, easy-to-eat navel oranges. How did these small, seedless mandarins become America’s favorite citrus fruit? The answer lies in marketing and consumer preferences.įor most of the 1900s, American consumers loved oranges. Tangerines and clementines, for example, are hybrids of mandarins and pomelos. Mandarins are small, oblate, sweet-tasting citrus fruits that are, in fact, believed to be one of the three botanical ancestors (along with citrons and pomelos) to all the citrus fruits we love today like oranges and grapefruits. What exactly are these tiny popular fruits, and what’s the difference between the different brands we see in the store?Ĭuties, Halos, and their less recognizable competitors are all seedless mandarins grown in California. Two perfect examples of this phenomenon are Cuties and Halos. It seems like every year there are different brands and packages of what could, for all we know, just be differently sized and shaped oranges. There are so many different kinds of citrus fruits in our grocery stores today. What really is the difference between Cuties, Halos, Delites, and other mandarins? America has fallen in love with these sweet, seedless, easy-to-peel citrus fruits that go by many names.

Halo cuties