You can't buy a New Zealand lemonade fruit anywhere so I would go with that. Centennial variegated kumquats are for show only and you can buy mandarins anywhere.

I just ate my last Armstrong mandarin (they were so good!) and am just now starting my Murcotts. Mandarins take well to containers. It's my favorite citrus in my collection. I actually have about 5 types of mandarin.

My personal favorites are Persian limes, kumquats, and of the oranges, my most productive one is the Blood Orange. For me, the Persian limes are consistently the most productive of them all.

P.S., I did not mention any lemons, because you already mentioned having some of those, but of the lemons, my favorite true lemon (non-hybrid), is the Lisbon lemon.

If you want eat out of hand I would have to recommend the fukushu, tough little trees and really good fruit. They also produce quite a lot. Kishu mandarin is another good one, though I haven't, personally, grown one of those trees. I've always wanted to try a new zealand lemonade.

Thanks for the input! Since citrus can be quite subjective flavor wise iI didn’t figure I would get an overwhelming majority opinion, just like hearing others experiences particularly with potted citrus grown indoors for part of the year. Although I love variegation what I have continued to read about the centennial kumquat is that it may be better for foliage alone. I guess I don’t know if the lemonade would be worth it, good to eat out of hand, or as I already have some lemon varieties if I should try a blood orange or other variety of mandarin. Have heard good things about the Xie Shan and Kishu, both.

My favorite tree is my New Zealand lemonade.

thank you all for your insight! Out of curiosity, does the New Zealand lemonade fruit have more lemon-like separations, or quite segmented like a mandarin? Just curious if this is something my kids would peel and eat like a mandarin or not. I may have to pick up a NZL lemonade and a fukushu kumquat this spring. Might see if I can buy a few kumquat at the store and see if my kids would even eat them first!

The sections of a NZL are somewhere between a lemon and a mandarin. They can be separated and eaten individually, but it's more difficult than a mandarin. That said, it's overall an easy fruit to eat with few seeds that can be easily divided into halves and quarters. (It's only if you want to separate EVERY section that you might need a knife)

As for the kumquats, you should make sure your kids like them first... They are a bit polarizing. Some people love them and some hate them... And there's a lot of variance in flavor and texture depending on which type you grow.

I would second that on the kumquats, as the taste is very personal. However I would be careful comparing a normal kumquat with the fukushu. The fukushus, when ripe, are much sweeter than your average kumquat and have a different flavor. I'm not the biggest fan of eating regular kumquats out of hand, but I'll slice and eat a fukushu like an orange. I've never seen them in a grocery store in my area, but then that could just be where I live.

@bonsai_citrus_and_indoor_gardening what area are you in? exotic citrus is hard to come by but they've been increasingly more common the last few years. (At least in NYC, but we tend to have a bit of everything there)

I am in the PNW. At a couple specialty grocers in the area you can sometimes find kishu mandarins or meiwa kumquats, but I've never seen a fukushu at a shop.

If your looking for a kumquat that kids would like I would go with a meiwa.

Thanks Ken, I had also read Meiwa would be a good option, a little sweeter than Fukushu. iI am going to try Whole Foods in the next week or so and see if they carry any kumquat for the kids to try.