Be Sure to Wrestle a Sumo Tangerine Into Your Shopping Cart

When I arrived at the outdoor produce area at the West L.A. Whole Foods last week, I sensed something was abuzz as a small gaggle of shoppers mingled around the oranges and exchanged knowing glances.

It turns out that the star they’d sighted was a Sumo. No, not a wrestler—it's a fruit.  The Sumo is a rare citrus that used to be available only  in Japan and South Korea. But after five years in development in the U.S. it's now available here.

Known as the Dekopon or Hallabong, Sumos usually sell for upward of $10 a piece. However, thanks to some adventurous growers at Suntreat in the San Joaquin Valley they're now available  in Mar Vista at only $2.99 a pound at Whole Foods. You can also purchase them at  Mar Vista’s own on Centinela Avenue. 

One customer at Whole Foods waved a Sumo in my face and seconded the opinion of Los Angeles Times writer David Karp, who noted that the Sumo is perhaps the holy grail of citrus: easy to peel, seedless and sweet.

I decided to put the Sumo to the test and took home one of the softball-sized, bumpy-headed spheres. It was indeed very easy to peel; the skin membrane was, as Karp said, "gossamer thin," and it was definitely smooth, almost wet to the touch.

Although I resist fetishizing a fruit, I must say that it is for flavor like this that food fetishes exist. Prized fruits such as India’s Alphonso mango or the Persian red mulberry—the Shahtoot—have lots in common with the nuanced Sumo. Its silky, juicy texture combined with its mandarin perfume is like a long passionate kiss with someone wearing your favorite scent. You get the picture!

The Sumo is the reason we have olfactory epithelium in our noses, those little cilia working so that our brains detect and remember more complex flavors. With the Sumo, I taste the familiar zing of a sweet tangerine yet its off the chart sugar content and flowery flavor lingers and mellows like a complex Cabernet or a ripe mango. If I were a chef, I'd add a Sumo sorbet to my menu as a cleansing citrus chaser to a great meal.

All I can say is thank goodness some adventurous growers decided to take on this enigmatic fruit. The first shipment at Whole Foods flew off the shelves, but the store assures me that more will be available for the next six weeks. 

So how do you pick a good Sumo? Jeff Mulligan, team leader at Whole Foods, said, "Each one I've cut all week has been sweet." His advice? "Just grab any one you want!"