The Remarkable, Florida Ruby Red Grapefruit

There’s just something about red grapefruit that makes the mouth water and the taste buds stand at alert. It’s not that pink or white grapefruit don’t taste good, too, but that red grapefruit…it simply cries out to be devoured with its deep blushing hues, succulent juiciness and the smell…oh, the fragrance of red grapefruit! It wafts from the plate (or bowl, if you’re smart, to catch all its juice!) to your nose and somehow works with your tongue to create an unforgettable aroma. In a nutshell, there’s just something uniquely remarkable about the color, fragrance and deliciousness of a Florida-grown red grapefruit.

One of the best known red grapefruit is known as the Florida Ruby Red. Available from November through mid-June, Ruby Red is a red grapefruit highly touted for its Vitamin C, as well as its many vitamins and minerals that do a score of healthful things for our bodies, such as help lower blood pressure, keep bad cholesterols like LDL and triglycerides at bay, prevent anemia and even put the brakes on the biggies like cancer and heart disease.

If you’re new to Ruby Red grapefruit, you may be wondering where on Earth has this wonderful, delectable fruit been all your life? Well, actually Ruby Red grapefruit has been around longer than most people have been alive – since 1929.

A spontaneous mutation, the Ruby Red “sport” (an unplanned growth on a plant that shows differences in the “mother” plant in form, structure or configuration) was spotted on a Thompson grapefruit by Mr. A. E. Henninger in a Texas citrus grove. Henninger patented it in 1934, making it the first variety of citrus to be patented.

Sometimes, the Ruby Red grapefruit is confused with the Redblush grapefruit. Both were sports of the original Thompson (a sport itself from yet another grapefruit variety). But the Redblush came along and was discovered, again in Texas like the Ruby Red, by J.B. Webb, just a couple years after the Ruby Red grapefruit, in 1931.

Although the Redblush and several other red grapefruit mutations have come forth later since Ruby Red, those in the know assure us that none of them differ significantly from our favorite Ruby Red grapefruit in how they look, how big they are, nor how much yield is produced from their trees. So all in all, there is such little difference, if any, that to most, it matters not a whit – Florida’s Ruby Red grapefruit is simply great – whatever you want to call it.

Taste the Sunshine with Hale Groves

At Hale Groves, we believe the best gifts come from the land, not a factory. For generations, our fruit has been grown slowly under the Florida sun, picked at its peak, and delivered fresh to your door. From sweet Navel Oranges to rare Honeybells, every gift shares the simple joy of real flavor—perfect for holidays, milestones, or everyday moments worth celebrating.

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