Many people—chefs included—think of citrus as merely sweet or tart. Navel oranges are sweet. Limes are tart. Everything else falls somewhere in between, right? And what more do you need to know?

In fact, citrus flavor is much more complex than that. Each citrus variety presents a collection of aromas that, like the aromas in wine, create its "signature." When you switch on your senses and really think about what you're smelling and tasting, you'll find a remarkable array of fruity and floral characters in citrus. You'll find that even citrus fruits you thought of as sweet have a brisk acidity that makes them refreshing; without that bracing acidity, the fruit would be insipid. A pleasing bitterness also marks some citrus, providing what chef Allen Susser calls a "third leg" of flavor to balance sweet and tart.

Think about color and texture, too, when you evaluate citrus. Color alerts you to the potential for visual contrast—a slice of emerald-green lime on a fillet of white fish, or the sparkling interplay of red grapefruit and avocado. As for texture, note whether the fruit is juicy, crisp, firm, seedy or astringent.

Push, Pull, Punctuate: Here's another way to think about flavors. Salty, sweet and hot ingredients push flavor across the palate. Tangy ingredients, like lemon and lime, pull out underlying flavors and heighten them, making them livelier. Ingredients with mild bitterness, like grapefruit, pummelo and sour orange, can punctuate a dish, adding flavor interest.

Try This: Gather a collection of citrus and a note pad and conduct your own tasting—a careful sensory evaluation as you would do for wine. Challenge yourself to come up with vivid descriptors for what you are seeing, smelling and tasting. Think about the affinities between each citrus type and other foods you use in your kitchen.

Here are some descriptors to get you started:

Lime: Thin skin; forward acidity; piney and floral with spicy notes.
Lemon: Bright floral nose; clean, rigorous palate with a sour-berry finish. Firm and juicy with smooth skin and few seeds.
Meyer lemon: Fresh orange blossom aroma; thin skinned; sweeter than lemon.
Ruby red grapefruit: Sour cherry aroma, tart grape flavor and lichee-like aftertaste. Solid and virtually seedless.

  Watch Part 1  |    Watch Part 2
  Watch Part 3

Watch This: Chef Allen Susser, author of The Great Citrus Book, and Kellie DuBois of Sunkist guide you through a sensory tasting of several familiar and not-so-familiar citrus varieties. See if you agree with their assessments. After watching these experts at work, you may never taste citrus the same way again.