CITRUS PARADISI – An Odoriferous Ode to Grapefruit

Years ago, when I started taking Simvastatin (generic Zocor), they said I shouldn’t eat grapefruit. I’m sure glad I stopped—the Simvastatin, not the grapefruit.

There's nothing quite like eating a good, fresh grapefruit. There’s that wonderful sweetness-acidity balance; the fragrant flavor and slightly bitter aftertaste—unlike that of any other citrus fruit; and, of course, that riotous explosion of juice.

And visually, I mean come on, just look at this feast of form, texture and color. The tough, pigskin-like rind, its mottled structure running all the way through. (These distinct little oliferous vesicles* contain aromatic oils that are released when cut or abraded.) The skin’s moist, cottony, cream-white lining (albedo) laced with pink-tinged veins.

Then there are the fine, gossamer membranes encasing each segment; the wrinkled, irregular seeds; and the feathery, fecund little cavern that runs through the fruit’s core when the central column is removed.

And, best of all, the dense packing of all those glistening, translucent little water balloons (juice vesicles) bursting with liquid.

     Grapefruit was not recognized as genetically 
     distinct from the pomelo until the 1830s.

FORBIDDEN FRUIT
This sublime fruit so engages me that I have to do a little research. I find that grapefruit’s existence was first documented in Barbados, in 1750. At that time it was referred to as “Shaddock”—for a sea captain said to have first bred it—or “forbidden fruit.” More likely, though, it’s a naturally occurring hybrid of Jamaican sweet orange and Indonesian pomelo.**

Grapefruit was not recognized as genetically distinct from the pomelo until the 1830s, when it was assigned the scientific name citrus paradisi.

* http://www.speciale.it/english/citrusfruit.html
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapefruit