I suppose you may just have tried fruit that were rotting, but it's true that blood oranges have a different, rather winey aftertaste, compared to non-pigmented oranges. I rather like it, but can see how one might not.

"Moro is very early in maturity (earliest of the commercial blood oranges), but holds well on the tree and stores and ships well. A distinctive aroma develops with advanced maturity, but flavour deteriorates if held too long in storage and becomes objectionable to some."

Ah ha, so it's not just me.

This from a wonderful website about citrus fruits cataloging hundreds and describing them in depth with photos -- http://users.kymp.net/citruspages/bloodoranges.html#caracara

I guess they just --- taste different! I don't know why I expected them to taste like Valencia oranges....they are something else, like lemons don't taste like limes.

I like Tarocco bloods the best. They're sweet.

Moros are sweet-ish, though more tart.

Sanguinelli are very tart.

Those are the only three I've tried personally -- I drank rather a lot of fresh blood orange juice in Italy, but I don't know what varieties they were squeezing.

I recently tried my first Blood Oranges (Moro). I thought they tasted fantastic.

I find commercially grown blood oranges terribly bland, and I think I've tasted that almost-rotten flavor as well.

I only like Taroccos myself, but I made some spectacularly purple marmalade from some Moros and a lot of sugar. I cheated on the flavor a little with some juice from seedy, but tasty tangerines.

Ah but the problem is with the very poor quality commercial fruit from California available in the grocery stores. Grocery store Moros are dark purple here but with the typical California commercial fruit tastelessness. Are you listening California commercial fruit growers? You don't fool me! You fruit is good only for compost by the time it gets to groceries typically green and tasteless. Now, the homegrown is a little different. Here in SE Texas the Moros are nice but I prefer the Sanguinelli for it's brighter, more intense flavor. The Taroccos are too late here and I haven't tasted a mature one. By Christmas here they are only pale orange without much flavor. We always get a citrus fruit freeze here before the Taroccos are ready.

Here is a link that might be useful: mrtexas

I grew up with a huge blood orange in our yard. I believe it was probably a Moro. Very sweet tasty fruit. The Moro blood orange stores well and holds well on the tree which is why retailers like to carry it. The flavor does get a little musky with extended storage so that is probably what you are tasting. If you get a good fresh one it should have a berry like undertone to the flavor and be juicy and sweet.

I just got into citrus and started buying Moro and Tarocco blood oranges everywhere I could find them and they taste completey different depending on where you get them and at what stage of maturity they were picked, weather conditions in which they were grown, ect....

The worst tasting were the extremely expensive and very very sour Tarocco's I ordered from an organic farm selling them online. The fruit were not sweet at all and only had tinges of red. The best tasting Tarocco i tasted was purchased last week at Trader Joes, very cheap, only a tinge of red but very sweet and not tart at all. The Moro's at Trader Joes was pretty tart, very deep red but not sweet enough. The best tasting Moro I had was picked up at the farmers market and was very sweet, very deep red and also had the perfect tartness and that special blood orange tanin/winey taste.

The sweet Taroccos I tried were good but lacked some acidity, I would prefer a valencia. The sweet Moro's I tried are my favorite blood orange so far. I've yet to try the Smith Red Valencia but this is the only citrus I currently own.

I usually use blood oranges in a lot of cooking and to make fabulous sauces and marinades for my chicken to my beef other than that I find them very Bland and Muskie. For some reason when I add other elements of lemon lime a tangerine.. I love blood blood oranges for marmalades

A blood orange coota a cake Bundt, try blood oranges with red wine fabulous

Ok noel,,, you gotta post those sauce recipes..... please!

I have a 10 yr old blood orange tree. The fruit, every year, are tasteless. The juice taste like lightly sweetened water. There is absolutely no citrus taste. If you didn’t know it was an orange you would never guess it was any sort of citrus fruit By tasting it. Any idea what causes it? Every year I swear at that tree and threaten it....”one more year and I’m cutting you down”.

An interesting thread....started back in 2010 and recently resurrected.

HU, I'm watching 32 fruit on my Moro and just can't wait for them to ripen so I can see if the looong wait has been worth it. The nursery tree was planted with a few fruit on it. They tasted wonderful but the tree was frozen nearly to the ground a winter or two later. Now the tree has come back, has slowly grown to about 12 feet tall and finally fruited this year. I tried planting one other Moro during that period and had no luck getting it to live.

I have a Moro, sanguinelli, and tarocco. The tarocco finally has fruit that I will taste this winter, so I can’t comment on that one. Of the other two, the sanguinelli is my favorite.

I only have a Smith Red (I really love Valencia-type oranges), but it was absolutely murdered by scale last winter and has only recently recovered (so no fruit). Very vigorous grower though!

I do agree that the commercial Moros are a bit musky; I have had really tasty Sanguinellis from the store but I do like tartness in my citrus.

Some have commented that Moro blood oranges store well on the tree but may develop an off flavor with extended storage time off the tree. My fruit will be lucky to last 15 minutes after I pick them so no worries about storage off the tree :>) Any suggestions on when I should pick a moro for the best flavor when eaten right off the tree? Should I wait until it's dead ripe and with a good orange peel color or will it be better picked with some yellow color still to the peel?

It's an individual's choice... I like them with good color and brix.

i will typically harvest one every few days until they reach desired maturity,,, then harvest most for friends and family. I have many other early oranges peaking at the same time so its not a rush.

Thanks! I decided to eat one the other day. The peel was yellow but no orange showing yet. It was OK but probably at least week or two too early. I'll wait for considerable orange color before trying another!