UGLI is a registered trademark
WHILE MANY people call it uglifruit, it is to be noted that only the tangelo that is produced by Trout Hall Ltd may be called ugli. UGLI® is the registered trademark under which Cabel Hall Citrus Ltd markets its brand of tangelos from Jamaica.
Known as tangelo (tangelo being a combination of tangerine and pomelo, another name for grapefruit), jangelo, and uniq fruit, it is a citrus that originated in Jamaica, near Brown’s Town in St Ann, through the natural hybridisation of a tangerine or orange with a grapefruit, and is thus a tangelo.
One Internet source says, “It was discovered growing wild in or about 1917, then passed through several generations of budwood grafting, selecting for fewer seeds. It was exported to Canada and England by 1934, and to the United States in 1942 … This teardrop-shaped fruit is larger than a grapefruit and has a thick, rough, greenish-yellow skin that peels off easily. Its flesh is orange and, like other citrus fruits, separated into sections by a white, net-like substance called the pith.”
Gordon Sharp, chairman of Trout Hall Ltd, told The Gleaner that Cabel Hall is the registered owner of the trademark, while Trout Hall is the registered user. The current strain, he said, was propagated by his father and uncle in 1934.
Cabel Hall’s website says, “This tangelo is a variety of citrus fruit grown exclusively in Jamaica and exported by Trout Hall Ltd to markets all over the world. It was discovered growing wild in Jamaica over 80 years ago and has been developed by the family of the owners of Trout Hall Ltd into the commercial variety now in production.
“The original tree is believed to have been a hybrid formed from the Seville orange, the grapefruit and the tangerine families. Since 1924 when it was first discovered, several improved scions have been used by Trout Hall Ltd to produce the current variety which is so popular.”
Another website, www. totalproduce.nl, says, “Trout Hall exports more than 70,000 cartons of UGLI® each year. The first commercial deliveries were sent to Canada in the 1930s. It was around this same time that the UGLI® name was chosen … Exports of the UGLI® to Europe began in the late 1960s, when the first shipments arrived in Rotterdam. This exclusive sweet juicy fruit is only grown in Jamaica by Trout Hall and its growers.” It is not marketed locally, but in North America and Europe.
“UGLI® are remarkably juicy, and squeeze easily for refreshing drinks. A glass of UGLI® juice makes a refreshing, flavourful change to fresh squeezed orange or grapefruit. The juice is delicious warmed as a hot toddy with rum, and sweetened with honey or brown sugar, or used to make ice creams and soufflés. Peel, slice away the pith and cut out the segments to use in a salad, as a cheesecake topping, or on its own as a dessert drizzled with sherry or Kirsch. The peel and juice together make marvellous marmalade,”the
website also says.