They have a smooth skin that is deep orange in colour. The fruit is flatter at the top and bottom parts. Clementines are easy peelers due to the thin peel that is fitted loosely around the fruit making peeling a breeze. Clementines are very sweet and juicy with loads of oils in their skin. Clementines fruit are the smallest of the Mandarins family.

The Clementine forms part of the Mandarin family which is a type of soft citrus orange. Mandarins are believed to have descended from wild oranges that grew in northeast India over 3 000 years ago. Mandarins made its way to China, and from there to Europe and North Africa.  Clementines are thought to have developed out of an accidental hybrid composed of mandarin seedlings. Initially, it was thought that the mutation was discovered by a French missionary, Clément Rodier, in a garden of an orphanage in Algeria. But another theory took hold later, that the citrus has oriental origins, as it is almost identical to the Canton mandarin grown across China.