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<\/a>Cocktail\u2019s origins<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Afterward, I looked up Cocktail grapefruit, and sure enough, the photos and description matched. But how is it that a grapefruit makes juice so sweet that I nicknamed it Kool-Aid? The answer: it\u2019s not a grapefruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the entry in UC Riverside\u2019s citrus variety collection<\/a>, Cocktail is a hybrid between a mandarin and a pummelo (so some people call it a “mandelo”). UC Riverside is probably right on this one, as they also claim that the hybrid was done by one of UCR\u2019s own researchers around the 1950s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More specifically, the Cocktail variety is said to be a cross between Frua mandarin<\/a> and Siamese pummelo<\/a>. \u201cThe variety was never officially released by the University of California, Riverside, but somehow made it into the public sector,\u201d it says in the UCR entry. \u201cThis hybrid \u2018escaped\u2019 into the industry and was named \u2018Cocktail grapefruit\u2019 by a citrus nurseryman (probably).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cocktail fruit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n My own discovery of my neighbor\u2019s fruit happened about ten years ago, and I feel like I rediscover Cocktail again every February. They\u2019re ripe from about now and through March. You can eat them in January and they taste more like grapefruit (less sweet), or you can eat them after March and they taste so sweet that you want to cut their sugar with a more acidic citrus (blood oranges work well for this job, as they add acidity and blood color).<\/p>\n\n\n\n But always, Cocktail fruit is exceedingly juicy. They\u2019re balls of water. And good thing, because they are so choked with seeds that they\u2019re not easy to eat. We rarely eat them; we almost always juice them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Occasionally, a Cocktail grapefruit will only be the size of a baseball, and occasionally one will be the size of a pummelo (or pomelo, however you like to spell it), but usually they\u2019re the size of a grapefruit. Ha! That is, they\u2019re the size of a softball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cocktail grapefruit tree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Cocktail grapefruit tree is very productive, and its leaves look more like pummelo leaves than mandarin leaves. They have deep green color and small wings on their petioles (leaf stems).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pummelo leaves have larger wings on their petioles though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tree grows almost as fast as a pummelo too. Cocktail trees will be a bit bigger than a mandarin tree of the same age and rootstock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where to buy a Cocktail grapefruit tree?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t have a Cocktail grapefruit tree of my own because my neighbor\u2019s is next to our fence. On my side of the fence is a Lamb avocado tree. So we just trade fruit and I have no need for my own Cocktail tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if I wanted to buy one, I would check at my local nursery. If you’re not far from San Diego County, you might try Clausen Nursery in Vista<\/a>, as numerous people have told me they’ve bought good Cocktail trees there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cocktail trees are also available to be purchased online and shipped from the reliable Four Winds Growers<\/a>. And you can get budwood of Cocktail from the Citrus Clonal Protection Program<\/a> and graft your own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, if I ever move or do something to offend my good neighbor, rather than buying a whole Cocktail grapefruit tree I would graft it onto another tree. Cocktails are like cherimoyas for me: I don\u2019t want a whole tree\u2019s worth of the fruit, but my winter feels incomplete if I don\u2019t get to enjoy a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here I enjoy a Cocktail in a video profile of the fruit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>