While perusing the aisles of Whole Foods earlier this evening my eyes came across a sinister sounding citrus fruit, the organic Australian blood orange. I actually kept walking and within a few steps stopped and said, wait a minute, a blood orange?

I backed up and sure enough the sign said blood oranges and even the outer skin of the orange was in fact, bloody red. These oranges were a fruit I had to try and so I tossed three in my basket and made my way through the rest of the store.

Value

Whenever I shop at Whole Foods I nearly always spend more than I planned to. Still, I'm nearly always satisfied and feel the few extra dollars were worth it. The blood oranges registered at $3.99 a pound. My three medium sized oranges totaled 1.22 lbs costing me $4.87 total. At $1.63 per orange these little suckers cannot be called cheap. Still considering they are organic and shipped half way across the world to satisfy my hunger, $3.99 per pound is a relative bargain.

Organic Australian Blood Orange

After devouring these delicious bloody oranges, I did a little bit of research on Wikipedia and found that blood oranges usually obtain their tell-tale color via a pigment called anthocyanin. This pigment not only gives these oranges a unique color but it is also an antioxidant, which many people now believe has a ton of disease fighting properties. Personally, I'm a big fan of antioxidants and find foods and drinks that contain them do make me feel better and give me a nice energy boost.

Wikipedia went on to state that a medium sized orange will contain about 130% of one's daily Vitamin C requirement, 15% of one's potassium and 28% of one's daily dietary fiber requirement. For $1.63, that's a fairly large amount of nutrients. I'm also a big fan of organic produce and feel it tastes better and believe it is healthier than conventionally grown produce. Considering the amount of nutrients per orange, and the taste and health benefits of organic produce, the price is worth it.

Score: 4 / 5

Quality

Wow, these things were bloody delicious! My first bite instantly reminded me of a tangerine flavor, and indeed Wikipedia hypothesizes these oranges were an ancient hybrid between a pomelo and a tangerine. These oranges have a sweet refreshing taste with much less acidity than oranges I normally eat. As you can see from the picture above, there are literally rivers of moisture pumping through its fibrous interior.

Due to their unique color and sweet taste, blood oranges make for a great juice and would go well in many recipes, from jams and marmalade to cakes and sweets. Personally, these oranges were so good raw I'd recommend just slicing them up and mowing 'em down.

Score: 4.5 / 5

Innovation

Well, blood oranges are certainly not new to the world nor the marketplace, so they are certainly not innovative in the traditional sense. However, organic produce and the massive global distribution of it is innovative in business terms, though organic farming is not new. Over the past couple of years, consumers have demanded and bought more organic foods and companies have provided more and more organic selections. It's a good trend and perhaps one day all our food will simply be organic.

Hmm...bloody and yummy!

We also should consider that breeding the pomelo and tangerine, or whichever fruits the breeders actually used, is innovative and brought us this great tasting fruit.

Score: 4 / 5

Social Benefit

Organic produce is good for us and for our environments, so Global Organics NZ Limited gets credit for using organic processes for all of their foods and Whole Foods gets credit for stocking organic produce. Still, the USA has regions where these blood oranges could have been grown, and in fact blood oranges are grown in parts of California and Florida. Locally grown foods are much better for us as they are fresher and better for the environment as less resources are needed to transport the food from farm to plate.

Still, I have to wonder how the taste varies from regions here to Australia. My experience has been that Australia and New Zealand produce very good tasting fruits and perhaps their soil and climate is better suited to grow these blood oranges. If they have an absolute advantage for growing this brand of blood orange, does it overtake the comparative advantage of growing them closer to home?

If Australian blood oranges taste much better than homegrown oranges, they would likely encourage more people to eat oranges rather than some other alternative. In a nation with a huge obesity epidemic, it is tough to fault Global Organics NZ LTD for being a member of the global economy while we have much more crucial social issues to deal with at the moment.

Global Organics does take steps to reduce its footprint, for instance using recyclable packaging and composting. It won't completely offset the fossil fuels used to transport their produce worldwide but it's a good start. As is, the energy used to transport organic blood oranges from Australia is simply not the most pressing social issue of our time. Note, after this review was published Global Organics informed us that these oranges are sent via sea freight, as is most produce out of New Zealand and Australia. As shipping via sea contributes less carbon per tonne shipped than shipping via air, we've increased the social benefit score for these oranges to a 4.

Score: 4 / 5

Freestyle!

I love oranges. There is nothing quite like a tall glass of fresh OJ or a nice juicy orange to renew your senses and refresh your taste buds. Having tasted many oranges in my life, from the days of sucking back orange slices at half-time of high school football games to the morning after glass of orange juice, whenever I really need a blast of energy oranges are the first food I reach for.

These organic blood oranges from Australia, produced and distributed by Global Organics NZ LTD, are among the best oranges I've had. Just take a look at the picture at the top of this review and tell me that orange does not look delicious. Go ahead, I dare you.

Score: 20 / 22

Organic Australian Blood Oranges are produced and distributed by Global Organics NZ LTD and sold by Whole Foods Market and other retailers worldwide.

Complete Score: 36.5 / 42 = 86.9%