Mandarine Garnets
If you have an allergy against citrus fruits stay away from here.
This page presents the most exciting orange gems on the market. Mandarin garnets have gotten their own name ever since especially fine spessartines were found in Namibia in the 90ies. A closer look revealed a mix spessartine plus pyrope. Remember, most garnets are mélanges of different sub-garnet-families. In the beginning, as so often, the name Mandarin Garnet was reserved to those found in Namibia but meanwhile we have almost as-good-as gems from Nigeria, Tanzania and Madagascar. Namibian gems still have an extra buck attached as they are assumed to be the best type.
Yellow and orange, spessartine’s best plus pyrope’s red brings out these extraordinary reddish orange gems.
In spessartine we look for the ‘fanta-orange’ hue but in mandarine we want to see a good deal of red. Opinions, light setting and gem-labs will draw different lines of what is Mandarine or what is ‘only’ a spessartine.
Follow your heart with an eye on your purse. You can always save good money buying off-color and loving 'your' color as much as others do the famed names. In any case, rest assured, these are highly visible gems, fearing no darkness and sparkling to everybody’s delight.
