The Frozen Clementine Hack Is the Snack of the Summer

One of the earlier internet trends that lives rent-free in my mind is the idea that eating an orange in the shower is a more special, almost magical, experience. This trend, which originated from a 2015 Reddit thread, has maintained its popularity, with people still sharing their experiences on social media all these years later.

I do recommend eating an orange in the shower — it successfully surrounds you with the aroma of the fruit — but that’s not my favorite way to enjoy citrus these days. Instead, during the hot, humid summer months, I’m turning to what’s often referred to online as the “frozen clementine hack.” 

This trick harkens back to some of the frozen fruit trends from last summer, when content creators posted videos of sour frozen grapes or grated frozen peaches over yogurt. But it’s easier than either of those options, yet equally refreshing — you don’t need to take a shower to do it, and the only tools you need are a freezer, a clementine, and a knife. 

How to recreate the frozen clementine hack

The goal of this “hack” is to produce frozen morsels of clementine that easily detach from the citrus peel. The technique was first introduced by a relatively new creator, Hannah Rose (@crazybosslife04), in an Instagram video that has since racked up nearly 11 million views. 

Rose begins by tossing a couple of clementines — referred to as ‘Cuties,’ a brand that sells clementines and has become almost synonymous with them — into the freezer. Once they’ve frozen solid, she takes a clementine out and runs it under hot water for about 30 seconds, turning the citrus so the water hits it on all sides.

The creator notes that this step is crucial to helping the fruit release from its peel more easily, but it’s also important for being able to slice it. Some other social media users who have recreated the hack have alternatively left the clementine out at room temperature for 15 minutes before slicing to achieve the same result.

Next, turn the clementine on its side and slice it in half. You should slice perpendicular to the stem and dimple on opposite ends, cutting directly through all the citrus wedges inside. Be careful; this is a round, frozen fruit and might be slippery. Once it’s sliced in half, you should see all of the wedges of fruit that have been cut through the middle, with each half of the clementine showing a starburst-like pattern.

That’s all the preparation you need before your frozen clementine is ready to enjoy. You can then invert the citrus halves to help pop out the frozen half-sections of fruit, which should easily come away from the peel. In Rose’s video, you can hear the icy, satisfying sound that a morsel of citrus makes as she bites into it.

Can you use any other citrus for this?

A clementine is ideal for this technique because it’s seedless, small (yielding bites that aren’t overwhelmingly cold even though they’re frozen), and easy to peel, so you should be able to quickly release sections of fruit from the skin of the fruit. However, this would likely work with other varieties of mandarin orange.

Although the terms “clementine” and “mandarin” are sometimes used interchangeably, a clementine is actually a type of mandarin orange. While clementines are among the smallest types of mandarin, mandarins in general tend to be smaller, sweeter, and easier to peel than other oranges, so you can probably use other varieties of mandarin, like tangerines or satsumas, for this hack.

I plan to try this with some Sumo Citrus, a hybrid mandarin that’s on the larger side but also easy to peel, and incredibly sweet, which gives me high hopes for its potential as a frozen treat.