They are also seedless, sweet, and diminutive. Unzippability is just one of several characteristics that make mandarins supremely marketable. The cheerful image references an agricultural term for this variety-“zipper fruit”-so named because of the ease of removing the peel. Cuties come in a crate-shaped cardboard box or a mesh bag with a label that features a smiling mandarin emerging from its peel through a zipper. Their brand name- Cuties-has practically replaced their horticultural name-mandarins-in the way that Kleenex once replaced “tissue.” Grown in California, Cuties are now the leading brand of mandarin, a citrus category that is on pace to unseat the common lemon from its slot at #2 on the Golden State’s production roster. Today we present the first installment of a long and winding story in which a tiny, seedless fruit becomes the iPhone of the produce aisle. ![]() For each topic we tackle, we’ll be developing a multi-part series of interlocking posts, which will combine, we hope, to offer a new lens for viewing the familiar. As you might guess from the name, this blog aims to unlock the ways design factors into the world around us, particularly its role in the everyday-seemingly undesigned-environment. ![]() Welcome to Design Decoded, the newest member of Smithsonian’s digital family.
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