Tangerines are another name for the grouping of oranges called Mandarins.
Even though Mandarins are from China, they reached the West via Tangier, Morocco, and so they were called “Tangerines” until it was understood that they were actually Mandarins.
Nowadays, the term is used by sellers to describe any Mandarin orange, but particularly ones with good colour.
An average-sized Tangerine is around 2 1/2 inches wide (6.5 cm.)
Equivalents
1 pound (450g) Tangerines = 4 or 5 tangerines
1 cup Tangerine segments = 10 to 12 segments
1 Tangerine = 3 1/2 oz = 100g = 3 tablespoons of juice plus 1 teaspoon of zest
Literature & Lore
“Tangerine juice is a new citrus beverage, more spicy in twang than the juice of the orange. It has a taste on the tongue of the tangerine’s own pungent perfume of that vaporous oil release from the peel…. During the past year we have found occasional small stocks of this juice, the total pack running some half million cases as compared to the 65 million-case citrus juice production for 1946. This year with the tangerine crop a record-breaker, a larger juice pack is promised. The juice is to be considered as a specialty, its price well over that of the juice of the grapefruit or orange. But it’s a fussy job in extraction—ever try it by hand?” — Paddleford, Clementine (1898 – 1967). Food Flashes Column. Gourmet Magazine. July 1947.