Thanks for the critique! I have been wanting to taste one myself because I have been sitting on the fence about ordering one. It supposedly is the best tasting table orange overseas so I have been watching inventory over at Four Winds. I have tasted the Moros, but not impressed.

Are the peels thin? How would you compare the ease of peeling to a zipper skin mandarin, Sumo or a Gold Nugget? Good to see they are seedless.

I wasn't too impressed by the Moro either even when I got one that was a bit more flavorful. The peels were very thin when they're hard to get off the Moro. When they're easy to peel the peel is a bit thicker and they definitely don't compare to the Sumo or GN but more like navel oranges. I actually found an average of 1-2 seeds in the Moro oranges. Not too bad though! And I got a chance to try sprouting the seeds. None have sprouted yet though :(

I just ate a 3rd Tarocco and I have to say that the taste of blood oranges seem to disappear pretty quickly. It doesn't stay on my tongue even when I'm still chewing on the fruit. The Moro's berry undertone is also stronger than the Tarocco's undertone. It's possible the Moro's we've tried weren't very good because of where they're grown. The Moros I've bought were from California while the Taroccos are imported from Italy

Thank you kvetch! I have not tasted a tarocco but absolutely love the sanguinellis I have grown thus far even though they have not colored up all that much. Have a tarocco tree and it does have some fruitlets...perhaps next year if I am lucky.

I found the Moros early in the season were very easy to peel and flavorful compared to the last 2 months where most were dry and would be harder to peel and break the segments without getting sticky hands. I had some Tarocco's from Spain (Bollo is the company) and I wasn't a big fan due to lack of colour, and hard to peel and hard to break the segments. Flavour wise, it was pretty good. The Tarocco's also appear to be bigger than the Moro's. Anyways, I stopped buying moros in the last month because again, 70% of them were dry and hard to break apart unlike the earlier moros...

Thanks for the comparison + taste test review. Man, I would love to find the Tarocco in the grocery. I have a slow growing Tarocco from Harris and I am thinking about purchasing one, 3 year old from Four Winds. I might get fruit sooner.. lol..

I had my first Moro (Grocery) around a month ago. We bought three and the first one was hard to peel and the membranes stuck to it pretty good, like Dave, hard to pull sections apart. Flavor was lacking. The second one was absolutely wonderful. Easy to peel, strong berry wine flavor. The hubby and I loved it. The third Moro was much like the first, bland.

Moro from grocery.

The blood color ran deep all the way through. The peel was blushed red.

I hope those Tarocco fruitlets hang on for you Laura! Maybe the Moro would be consistently tastier if we grew them ourselves rather than relying on buying them. I would love to find a Sanguinelli next at the stores! The blood oranges taste great when they're tangy.

I agree with you Dave! The Moros I recently bought were all lacking in flavor and dry. The ones I purchased a few months ago weren't great in terms of flavor either but I had a few good ones at least and they were all mostly juicy. Lucky me I don't get too disappointed if they don't have the red color :) Thanks for sharing your experiences with Moros! It helps a lot to have a better idea of what to expect from these varieties.

Jinny did you find the Moro to be sweet when you had the really taste second one? The Moros I considered decent were all tart but maybe I only thought that way bc they were more than just bland lol. How old is the Tarocco from Harris and how long have you had it? A lot of what I've read on blood oranges seem to say they tend to be moderately vigorous and some even slow growing :/ I have a photo of a Moro I tried in March.

I had showed my boyfriend the photo without telling him what it was and he found it creepy and said it looked like it was filled with blood :D

Jinny, I have found that also when buying Moros in the store. Some can be wonderful and other not. I can tell you that the sanguinellis I grew were very very good. I liked them even better than the mandarins I grew. I am excited bc the sanguinelli or tangelo are both loaded with fruit...two of my favorites!

Omg that's so great Laura! I can't believe they can produce tasty oranges for you. When do the Sanguinellis ripen for you? I'm also in zone 7b and I wasn't sure if it was possible to have a blood orange tree ripen properly for our zone

Kvetch, the second Moro had such a diverse, complex, but oh so wonderful flavor. Each bite was like a good, rich, berry wine flavor, mixed with a bit of tartness and sweetness rolled into one. Each section and bite tasted just a bit different than the one before. I never had a single fruit that ever had such a mingle of flavors. If all the Moro's I tried tasted that good I think it would be fabulous juiced also..

I have had the Tarocco for close to 2 years. It was a year old when purchased from Harris. I will try to find a picture. I forgot what rootstock it is on but will look at the tag next time.

That is great news, Laura. I am excited for you! Think of all that wonderful fruit! :) I had a Sanguinelli from Four Winds but it died on me last year. I just received a 5 gallon Minneola Tangelo from Harris. The tree has a nice shape, but was severely root bound. I was hoping the tree would have come with some blooms or fruitlets attached, but sadly no. The only thing it came with was a severe nutrient deficiency . Lol..The leaves have quite a bit of yellow in them but with some tlc, rain water, sunshine and foliage pro it should help to correct that.

I think the main problem is consistency... which is a common problem for store bought fruit for a number of different reasons... age of fruit on shelf, source, growing conditions etc etc etc

It sounds amazing when you describe it like that Jinny. The berry winey flavor really shines when it actually has tartness and sweetness to the fruit. It almost seems worth it to grow our own Moros if we can consistently get that kind of flavor. I'll be interested to know what rootstock its on. Maybe that's what is affecting the growth rate of your Tarocco. Have you tried asking them how long it took their Taroccos to reach fruiting maturity?

Here's the 4th Tarocco. Peel was only orange. One half of the flesh is more red while the other half is a bit more orange. The orange half was very tart with a hint of sweetness. Not much of that fruity undertone. The redder half is a lot less tart and more sweet. It's also a bit bitter like grapefruit! A much better and tastier balance than the orange side. The fruity undertone was stronger and comes through more on the redder half.

The tag on the tree says SWG, so it is grafted on swingle rootstock. This trees overall structure is poor. I am planning on trimming the two branches back a bit to encourage more upwards growth and maybe it will develop new branching.

The main trunk is barely over a foot high. I have not trimmed this tree at all. What you see for the framework is pretty much how it arrived except it has had a bit of growth on the ends of branches since I had it. If you look at the middle center of the tree, you can see a dead, brown branch. That was already like that when it arrived. It was not easy to notice when in arrived in full leaf, so I am thinking that someone chopped part of the main leader off, (which probably had dieback.) sometime before being shipped out. Some trimming just might help this poor tree.

I appreciate the pictures and wonderful descriptions of the Tarocco fruit you bought.

That's so strange Jinny. I just looked into the swingle rootstock and it's supposed to be known for moderately vigorous growth unless the swingle seedling used on your tree has more slow growing trifoliate characteristics? Swingles aren't known to tolerate calcareous soils too well..if your tree doesn't have any rot or diseases going on, the only thing that I can think of would be high pH of the mix. It looks like it's leafing out now though so hopefully this is the year it starts taking off! I'm glad the photos and descriptions are helpful Jinny. I'm aiming to leave behind some personal account with the fruit for future citrus growers

That's awesome Dave and congratulations! Seems you're of of the few people who have tried all 3 varieties which is actually quite an accomplishment. Really sounds like Moro is worth growing ourselves if we can get it under the best conditions :) thanks for sharing with us the photos and your opinions!

I found a Moro that must've rolled under something in the fridge and was hidden from me for a couple of months.

The peel was extremely dried looking and the orange seemed shriveled. It didn't feel rotten soft though, still a bit firm just shrunken in size and plumpness.

Beautiful beautiful coloring on the inside. When sections were peeled away from each other, it looked dark purple-black through the membrane.

Flavor was so absolutely amazing! I have no clue if dehydrating in the cold fridge influenced the flavor but it was slightly sweet with strong tartness. Not tart enough to make my whole mouth or face pucker like some other Moros I had. Had a faint berry flavor, not as strong as other Moros though..maybe it was too old. Because of that the taste very much resembled a sweet orange just faintly different. I'm surprised it lasted so long in the fridge. I heard Moros don't store well at all. I still have a few more Taroccos I put off eating so I'll see how fridge life affects them later on.

I'm now convinced on getting my own Moro tree. Grocery Moros might be abundant, accessible, cheap but they're not worth buying when they're consistently a 1:5 hit or miss. But wow when they're a hit, there's really nothing like it and I'm a huge lover of sour and bitter grapefruits.