OK, on November 12, I picked one of the 'Sterling' Citrandarins (assumed US 852 - Poncirus x Changsha) off my potted tree. I wanted to test this again as a potted plant because the fruit tend to ripen late and are vulnerable to frost damage, even though the plant itself is quite hardy and has survived and even bore fruit outdoors here in zone 7A, until the vortex years when it froze to the ground.

It was quite orange as you can see. The flesh gave just a bit. This fruit has never experienced a freeze, as I brought the plant into my garage just prior to hard frost.

Here are my initial thoughts.

Peel very thin, but adherent. I used a knife to peel it. Peel had slight trifoliate oil smell and taste. My wife could smell it from a ways away!

Flesh was yellow/orange like a juice orange and very juicy. Not the deep orange of a mandarin though. There were probably a dozen seeds present. The flesh smelled a bit of trifoliate. First taste was tart. And also a very distinct presence of trifoliate oil. I ate one half out of hand. But after eating my Satsumas, I'll probably never eat another Citrandarin this way. Left a slight oil taste in my mouth.

So, then I squeezed the remaining half of the fruit. Got a good amount of juice. Since it was tart and trifoliate-tasting, I added some Equal (half a bag). It was a bit better this way, but still could taste trifoliate oils. Just not very satisfying.

So, I'm going to wait up to a month to see if any remaining fruit on the tree will sweeten up and possibly even lose some trifoliate oil taste over time (I have my doubts about the oil taste issue though).

Preliminary Conclusions: I'm not entirely convinced now that this citrandarin is the US 852 (Poncirus x Changsha), since it doesn't have ANY fuzz on the skin, but looks smooth, more like a mandarin. Still, it could be. But the size is larger than Changsha, I think, unless the large size on mine is due to very few fruit set on. Still, this Citrandarin would make an interesting ornamental where hardy (zones 7B and milder) as well as a good rootstock. I do not think I would ever eat it out of hand or squeeze for juice again unless I was on a Survivor show (unless it improves with time). But maybe some wouldn't be bothered by it like I am.