It all depends on your taste. I, personally, find them a nice balance of sweet/tart, though occasionally some kinds can be bitter. It also depends on how you want to eat them. I find my Fukushus are wonderful sliced thin and served on a salad or made into syrup and served on bread over goat cheese. Kumquats really have to be eaten whole to be fully appreciated as the skin tends to be sweet while the juice is sour.

I can occasionally find (usually nagami) in specialty food stores and Asian stores. Whole Foods may have them too. I have a nagami and a lemonquat. I like both of them. It is a strange feeling eating with the skin. The skin is sweeter. From all accounts Meiwa is the best but I do have a meiwa plant or had the pleasure of tasting one.

The Meiwa is the sweetest. Onegreenworld.com grafts to Flying dragon rootstock and Briteleafe sells rooted Meiwa cutting trees. Those are the best choices as far as graft compatibility. If you get a Fukushu Fourwinds carries them grafted to C35.

If you like the experience of kumquats, you might also consider the Indio Mandarinquat -- which is a kumquat x mandarin hybrid. It packs a punch for flavor (almost overwhelming!) and is larger than any kumquat. Like a kumquat on steroids. You eat the whole thing -- peel and all, like you would a regular kumquat. The inside is tart but has some mandarin flavor. Maybe consider grafting onto another citrus if space is a consideration.

Nagami and Fukushu seem like the varieties I am most likely to find locally. I live in Arizona and so I cannot purchase a Meiwa online and ship into state. Maybe some day I can try my hand at grafting a Meiwa but I have read those are difficult to graft, though I cannot find what makes them harder to do so. I think I will need to either love Nagami and/or Fukushu, or pick a different tree.

Do you enjoy eating them out of hand, or always as some kind of accessory?

Fukushus are awesome right out of hand, though, at the moment I try to mix them into stuff to make the few on my tree go further as the whole family likes them fresh, and my tree is still young. Fukushus aren't bitter unless they still have green, and are bigger and jucier than any other kind I've had. Nagamis aren't my favorite out of hand as I do find them more bitter than I like, but a lot of people I know use them in their cranberry sauce at christmas, or really do like them as is, and I really like jam made from them. I kind of keep my Nagami as my jam and processing tree and my fukushu for eating.

I only grow what I like a “ lot”. Not much on lemons or lime, having a couple tree’s is all I want. Got a bunch lemons now and guess, no demand.

Dave, I've never heard of the mandarinquat, but it sounds like something I'd be interested in. I assume the mandarin influence also helps with the sweetness.
Bonsai, I appreciate the comparison between Nagami and Fukushu, I think I will steer towards Fukushu if I can find one locally.
Bob, I agree, only grow what I like! I hope you find a home for your lemons. If I were local, I'd pick them up from you!

i have one tree of all four of the Kumquat series. I find Meiwa and Fukushu the best. Marumi kumquat taste much like Meiwa.

Nice offer, might be able to load you up with some other goodies while you are not looking.

Silica, I haven't heard of marumi, very interesting!
Bob, haha, as long as it's citrus or other fruit I won't complain ;)

A Marumi grafted on Flying dragon can go down to 10F without leaf loss or damage.

Steve, that's impressive! I would love to try my hand at grafting but I'm at least a couple years out from that, I think.

My vote is for Meiwa.

BIG kumquat fan here. But I can really see how some people might find the flavour not to their liking.

The common narrative is that meiwa are the 'best' because of the sweetness, but I kinda lean towards nagami because of the balance of flavours. Sometimes the peel on my meiwa are not very tasty.

I have a fukushu but no fruit yet, and a lot of people seem to think it is the best.

Fukushu plants seemed pretty easy to find when I was looking in Tucson last year. Also remember - Costco sells citrus plants, and maybe even fresh fruit.

Being in AZ you should be able to find local people growing them, so you could try them. I imagine people might list them on facebook/craigslist?

Travis Thanks for the compliment. At this point I have only grafted Fukushu to Flying dragon and C35. I have only read about the Marumi's cold hardiness when grafted to Flying dragon.

Grafting is so much easier when done with a razor blade and sterilized finger nails instead of those fancy grafting tools.

Fukushu on C35

Steve

Excellent loooooooking graft, couldn’t be any better.

Dave, local grocery store had mandarinquats today so I got a chance to try one. I would agree that it packs a punch, flavor closer to the Nagami with a bit of an orange rind taste in the peel. Definitely worth eating fresh, personal taste-wise I might use them in something over eating alone though. Since the one I ate had a few seeds I've now been inspired to try to germinate them as an experiment.

That is an excellent looking graft Steve! You can't hardly notice that junction. I have an itch to graft but it's just not practical in my circumstances. I think it would be really fun and gratifying, but I am limited in space (what would I do with all these grafted trees?) and I'd likely have to grow rootstock from seed, procure scion wood from the CCCP (AZ is a commercial state and even though we don't have any confirmed HLB cases, I certainly don't want to be "patient zero") and then find a place to house all of my creations. But it looks so fun!

Hibiscus, I didn't know Costco sold citrus trees. I'm a Sam's Club man, but I might have to borrow a friend's Costco membership and take a peek at their offerings. I'm curious how you'll think your Fukushu compares to your Nagami.

We have a meiwa and a fukushu. Our fukushu came from costco, in March of last year. The key is to find out when they arrive and get one right away. Our was $18 and was about four feet tall. It is doing well and we are about to get our first crop. Several weeks later, the unsold ones were dry and dying in the store.

costco can check their system and tell you when a shipment will arrive, I have the sku around here somewhere...

citrus plant 85751
kumquat 435014

You could call a local store -mine was able to check every store in the region. None of my stores sell them, although the state north of me had some, lol (last year)

I have seen postings on the internet showing those kumquat trees at 9.97 when they clearance them out. O...M...G...

My fukushu (from stan mackenzie) made one flower last year, but no fruit. The plant is only 12 inches tall...but I will keep my fingers crossed. Just pushed out new growth this week :)

I have Meiwa, which I received as a free promo item a couple of years ago from our local insurance agent and will eat them though honestly there are a lot of citrus varieties that would be on my list ahead of it. To date I have only ever eaten them whole, sort of like eating a seeded grape, though a bit tougher, I have seen some interesting looking recipes that I want to try. Mine came from Saxon Becnel, I have bought a few other citrus trees from them, and this one by far has the poorest graft union, it was about 3 ft tall, in a 3 gallon growers pot and a bit thin, though I have to wonder if the insurance company made a deal with them to get seconds in a bulk buy (as I recall it was a choice between Owari Satsuma, Meyers Lemon or Meiwa kumquat, or some non citrus tree, since I had Owari and Meyers growing in ground already I opted for the Meiwa).

Don't get me wrong, I do like them, it is just eating 1 or 2 at a time a couple of times per week and a pound of them would be about my yearly limit. By contrast something like a Cara Cara Orange might weigh a pound each, and I could eat one per day during prime season. This does not count the juicing potential of other citrus. Even Meyers lemon is higher on the list, as the perpetual year round supply of lemons is nice to have, even though 90% of them off my 5 year old Meyers tree go to waste.

Kumquats are my first choice.

Interesting to me that some areas don't market the Meiwa. Here in SE Texas the Meiwa and Nagami are commonly sold. I like the Meiwa fresh off the tree. It's crisp, and a combination of citrusy (oils from the peel), sweet (meat), and with a slightly sour finish. I only want a few now and then and eat them as much because they are bound to be healthy...with peel included. I have tried cooking with them and have posted my favorite recipe quite a few times in the past but will post again since I see quite a few new member names here. Once you add the lemon juice, the mixture will begin to thicken. Mix thoroughly but don't over-mix, then quickly mix in the kumquat pure'. Again, don't over-mix. Transfer to pie shell quickly so the filling can continue to set up.

INGREDIENTS:

1 baked pie crust, 9″
1 (8 oz.) Cool Whip whipped topping (or make your own whipped cream!)
2/3 cup pureed Kumquats
1 can condensed milk
1/2 cup lemon juice

DIRECTIONS:

1. Beat condensed milk and whipped topping.
2. Add lemon juice and beat until thickened.
3. Add pureed kumquats.
4. Pour in pie shell.
5. Chill in refrigerator for several hours before serving

Thanks John! I hope to be able to try your recipe some day! I went to the home center today and they had a fresh load of citrus trees, including kumquat. However, they only had Nagami so I decided to wait. I'm going to see if a Fukushu or Meiwa comes in as I'm pretty sure based on description that I won't like Nagami.

Hey Mike :)

No polar vortex here. Upper 70s in the day and upper 40s/low 50s overnight. Buds are showing up everywhere on my two citrus. In the 3 years I've been here we've never been affected by the polar vortex. Our cold weather usually comes in from the west. I don't understand the reasons why, but there must be something about our geography. Stay warm my friend and protect that garden of yours!