Like many other beautiful things in life, mandarins come in colorful shades. If multiple color modifiers in front of the dōTERRA® Mandarin essential oils have left you puzzled in the past, I have good news: the mystery is about to be resolved in your mind once and for all! Red, Yellow, and Green Mandarin essential oils all come from the same fruit; they’re simply produced during different times of the ripening process. You got it, the color modifier depends on just when these citrus fruit are picked during their growth process. (Is this a lightbulb moment for you, too?) On the scale of ripe to unripe, we start with Red Mandarin, which comes from the peel of a perfectly ripened fruit in all its red or orange glory. Next, Yellow Mandarin is extracted from the peel of the fruit when it is partially ripe. Today’s spotlighted oil, Green Mandarin, is extracted from the fully unripe green fruit.
Don’t let the word “unripe” leave a bad taste in your mouth, because the essential oil these cold-pressed green peels give birth to is decidedly sweet and refreshing! Green Mandarin supports a bright, energizing environment, and it cleanses surfaces wherever it goes. Check out how this floral, fruity citrus operates in the following uniquely green diffuser blend.
Citrus Fir
3 drops Green Mandarin
3 drops Douglas Fir
2 drops White Grapefruit
2 drops Siberian Fir
Once you soak up the aroma of this blend, you’ll figure out quickly that citrus and fir are a match made in heaven. Together they refresh, energize, and balance. In addition to the fir oils, Green Mandarin also pairs gorgeously with Basil, Lavender, Sandalwood, and Spearmint. Any combination you arrive at is sure to be soothing and uplifting with these oils in the mix!
Okay, so we saved one of the best parts of the story of Green Mandarin for last, just to reward you for reading this far. You probably already know that the mandarin is a citrus tree with fragrant white flowers that mature into small, juicy oranges. But did you know that Green Mandarin is one of dōTERRA’s most eco-friendly essential oils? You see, the farmers in Brazil who cultivate their citrus groves to source this oil know the importance of the thinning process. By plucking or clipping more than half of the trees’ young, unripe fruits, the farmers prepare the trees to yield their maximum harvest of healthy, mature fruits later on (enter Red Mandarin). Before Green Mandarin essential oil came to the market, this dramatic pruning process resulted in a carpet of small, unripe green fruits decomposing on the ground. But now, these young fruits go to good use in the creation of their very own chemically unique essential oil, valuable and desirable in its own right. Green Mandarin is an underdog story of the eco-friendly variety, if ever there was one!
Progressing stages of maturity are a part of life. Good thing dōTERRA knows how to get the most out of each stage of the ripening process by using those small green citrus gems to make Green Mandarin essential oil. This oil reminds us to glean all we can from whatever unique stage of growth we’re currently in, and to hang in there through the painful pruning process. You may have just met your new favorite citrus oil. Get out there and show ‘em what you got, Green Mandarin!