Mie Nanki Mikan (三重南紀みかん)

Mie Nanki Mikan (三重南紀みかん) is a Japanese mandarin orange from the southern tip of Mie Prefecture. Growers there ship citrus in almost every month of the year, which is rare in Japan. The brand covers Unshu mandarins from three towns on the Pacific coast: Kumano City (熊野市), Mihama (御浜町), and Kiho (紀宝町). Most travelers meet Japanese mikan in Wakayama or Ehime. Yet this quiet corner of the Kii Peninsula, the mountainous cape south of Osaka and Nagoya, sends out some of the earliest field-grown mikan in the country. So the first boxes leave while summer heat still lingers, and that timing shapes the flavor. TOCWhat Is Mie Nanki Mikan? Mie Nanki Mikan is not a botanical variety. Instead, it works as a shipping brand for Unshu mandarin (Citrus unshiu) grown in the far south of Mie. JA Ise, the local agricultural co-operative, sorts and ships the crop. Most of it reaches supermarkets around Nagoya, in the area Japan calls Chūkyō. Two Labels That Sound Almost the Same The naming trips people up, so the two labels are worth separating. JA Ise ships fruit from the three towns as “Mie Nanki Mikan”. Mie Prefecture, meanwhile, certifies fruit from the same area under its official Mie Brand progr...