That's just one of the selling points of Ka'u Gold oranges, grown on the Big Island. Another is the taste: bright, zingy and bursting with sweet juice.
Few know Ka'u Gold Co.'s Morton and Keiko Bassan have also developed Ka'u Gold honey tangerines, just as sweet, and happily, just as ugly.
Visit Foodland-Ala Moana and Daiei stores this weekend to sample Ka'u Gold tangerines and navel oranges.
The Ka'u Gold tangerine is "a variety I developed, an offshoot of the Murcott honey tangerine from Florida," said Morton, who prizes the tangerine for sweetness, and best of all, a thin skin.
While tangerines abound, citrus lovers will have to wait on the popular Ka'u Gold oranges, which have rolled out of the stores quickly. The season for navel oranges is roughly November through April, and Morton -- who picks no fruit before its time, to allow it to ripen to his standards -- is anticipating another crop in mid- to late-April.
The Bassans at one time were the unlikeliest farmers. Keiko was a classical pianist and piano teacher. Morton was in the real estate investment business in Seattle when he arrived for business on the Big Island one fateful day in 1979.
"I stepped out of the plane and it wasn't cold, it wasn't drizzly, it wasn't gray, and I liked it. After that, I kept trying to think of ways to be here permanently."
The following year, he did what he knew best. He bought land, 152 acres at South Point on the Big Island. It was an abandoned orange field overgrown with vines. He and Keiko ended up clearing most of the land themselves since they lacked the money to hire a lot of help. The first commercial oranges were hand-plucked, as they still are, in 1981.
"We didn't know anything about oranges," Morton said. For awhile, he and Keiko debated whether to get rid of the oranges and put in other produce.
"But we got to thinking that when we were growing up we had fruit that tasted like fruit. It wasn't as pretty as today, but it tasted really, really good," he said. "We wanted to grow fruit that tasted like the fruit we grew up with."
Unfortunately, shoppers have been conditioned by years of supermarket shopping to select firm fruit. These same shoppers often wonder why that firmness translates into dry and flavorless.
"I can't figure it out," Morton said. "My children like the really hard nectarines and peaches. When I was growing up, those were the ones we threw away."
He said that the appropriately ripe Ka'u Gold orange or tangerine will be slightly soft to the touch because these fruits are the sweetest and possess the most juice.
Keiko said, "I wish all farmers had the courage to say, 'I have this great product. It doesn't look as pretty as other fruits and vegetables, but it's good tasting.' "
Instead, she said, most farmers focus on the salable appearance retailers want, with little regard for what's under that glossy, unblemished skin. To achieve that perfection, much of the fruit in supermarkets is treated with chemicals such as Thiobenzilate, benlate or ethylene gas, and are dyed or waxed, Morton said.
Ka'u Gold products achieve their ugliness naturally. No chemicals are used, saved for yeast bait treated with malathion and hung in the open to attract the fruit flies that otherwise would attack the citrus fruits.
Just when you think nothing could be done to improve on Ka'u Gold produce, however, Morton says he's working on a few ideas. Thankfully, in addition to his knowledge in real estate and oranges, he's also a science buff.
Currently, he's trying to find the gene responsible for seed development in tangerines. If he succeeds, there'll be no more seeds to spit out and detract from the enjoyment of pure liquid sunshine.
Ka'u Gold tangerines will be among the products featured at a Department of Agriculture food show
Place: Foodland, Ala Moana Center