Wherefore Art Thou Cutie?

One of the treats of this wintertime season is the abundance and variety of citrus fruit. To me, growing up without any real appreciation for the seasonality of foods, I would have guessed that citrus was a summertime treat, given the strong resemblance of their vivisected form to a burst of sunshine. It remains one of the least intuitive seasonal food groups around, and I'll always consider it forgivable to assume that oranges and tangerines should appear along with strawberries and peaches, when they have so much sweet juicy character in common.

If I'd been left to figure it out on my own, I would have called upon memories of my grandmother's stories of Christmases celebrated with stockings full of oranges. She grew up in a small German community in North Texas, where presumably, even citrus from south Texas was special enough to warrant a yuletide honor. This is an easily-measurable gap in knowledge of the year's food fluctuations, and a way to see exactly how long it's been since my family felt a connection to the natural rhythm of crops; for me, it's two generations. By the time my mother came around, food distribution was becoming an industry, and sturdy navel oranges were on their way to year-round nationwide ubiquity.

But some things remain seasonal. As has become customary this time of year, my local markets have begun stocking their shelves with Cuties, a variety of easily-peeled and cheap clementine sold by the boxload. I had one with my breakfast this morning, and began to wonder about them. Why is it that I don't remember these little guys from my childhood? Are Cuties simply a brand name for something that had already been around, or could they somehow be new?

Wearing their holiday attire

I asked my Larousse Gastronomique, from 1961. It offers a few clues. The "sweet orange tree", as it differentiates from the older bitter variety, "does not always reproduce itself faithfully from seed", and comes from many different countries, etc. Hmm. Nothing there.

I asked my book Citrus: A History, by Pierre Laszlo, and I get a story about Portuguese citrus exports to Britain influencing Spanish colonists in California, how the Protestant work ethic of later settlers played a role along with the climate of Southern California to produce an industry...sheesh. Nothing on Cuties, or even basic clementines, for that matter.

To the internet, where I find my answer, on the Sun Pacific website:

"Back in the early 2000’s Sun Pacific introduced the Cuties® brand California Clementine from our ranches in the San Joaquin Valley. Already being a Citrus grower since 1969, we understood the fine art of growing excellent quality fruit."

It seems we have clever Southern California orange-growers to thank for these Cuties. This enthusiastic page goes on to tout the many "features" of this orange, including its portability and its provocative-sounding "zipper skin".  Whether and how their heritage traces back any further than a twinkle in a marketer's eye will have to wait for some deeper research. For now, I'm going to go unzip a few more and enjoy the results.