Date fruits are important for their nutrients. They are also used to produce other products such as date paste, date syrup, and most recently, date powder.
Food-producing companies need to know different types of date fruits so they can make better purchase decisions. There are more than 400 different types of date cultivars in the world. In this article, we introduce the 14 most popular ones in no order of importance.
Table Of Contents
- 1- Soft, Fibrous Medjool Dates
- 2-Chocolaty Sweet Piarom Date Fruits
- 3-Amber, Flavorsome Deglet Noor
- 4- Chocolaty, Fleshy Mazafati Dates
- 5-Petite,Fragile Barhi Dates
- 6- Meaty-skinned, Tasty Rabbi Dates
- 7- Dry, Delicate Thoory Date Fruits
- 8- Semi-dry, Soft, Sweet Sayer Dates
- 9- Soft, Sweet Dayri Dates
- 10- Soft, Delightful Halawy Dates
- 11- Sweet, Crispy Sukkary Dates
- 12- Sweet Chewy Khudri Dates
- 13- Nutty, Oval-shaped, Sweet Zahidi Dates
- 14- Chewy, Wrinkled Safawi Dates
1- Soft, Fibrous Medjool Dates
| Taste and texture: | Medjool dates are soft, delicious sweet dates with a rich taste and fibrous texture. |
| Color and size: | They are amber to reddish-brown and are large to very large. |
| Applications: | These types of date fruits are perfect for eating fresh due to their high moisture. |
| Origins: | Medjool dates are grown in Morocco, Palestine, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia and ripen early in the season. |
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2-Chocolaty Sweet Piarom Date Fruits
Piarom (Piyarom) dates is the most nutritious date fruit known. It has many dietary and medicinal applications for its nutrient contents. For this reason, they are among the most expensive date fruits and mostly eaten directly as snacks or mixed in foods.
| Taste and texture: | Piarom dates have thin dark skin fully attached to their flesh. They have a unique sweet flavor with traces of toffee and caramel. |
| Color and size: | They are semi-dry, long (2 to 5 cm), thin, and oval with dark brown to black skin. |
| Applications: | Due to their level of fructose and a low glycemic index (GI), they are suitable for people with diabetes and blood pressure. You can stuff the pitted ones with nuts creating a light snack for your cozy evenings. Rarely are they used to make date paste or date syrup. |
| Origins: | Piarom dates have been cultivated throughout the Persian Gulf and the Middle East since ancient Mesopotamia 6,000 BC. |
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3-Amber, Flavorsome Deglet Noor
Deglet Noor dates are semi-dry slightly crunchy date fruits. They are considered the most popular date fruits in the United States.
| Taste and texture: | These semi-dry dates are sweet and delicate and are known for their delightful flavor. |
| Color and size: | They are medium to large and their skin color varies from amber to deep brown. |
| Applications: | Deglet Noor dates are excellent for cooking. The name itself means “date of the light” because the center of the date looks golden or light when held up to the sun. |
| Origins: | Not known. |
4- Chocolaty, Fleshy Mazafati Dates
Mazafati dates are actually picked when they are still Rutab. For this reason they are sometimes called Mazafati Rutab. It is the most common variety of dates used for snacking and table eating.
| Taste and texture: | They have 15% to 35% moisture with thick flesh and a chocolaty caramel-like taste and traits of brown sugar. |
| Color and size: | They boast an attractive soft and fleshy appearance with a dark brown color. The size of Mazafati dates usually ranges from 2.5 to 4 cm. |
| Applications: | Mazafati dates are loaded with vitamins, fiber, and potassium. You can eat them right out of your bag as a snack. Pit and stuff them with cheese or whatever you desire. Mazafati dates are hardly ever used for the production of date paste or date syrup due to their high water content. |
| Origins: | These dates originate from Bam, a city in Kerman, Iran. |
5-Petite,Fragile Barhi Dates
| Taste and texture: | Barhi dates are rich in nutrients with a syrupy flavor. |
| Color and size: | They are the most petite and most fragile dates. The firm skin and flesh turn amber, then golden brown when stored, and the fruit itself is small to medium in size. |
| Applications: | They are suitable for desserts; they tend to keep their texture and pair wonderfully with different fruits. |
| Origins: | The Barhi palm was introduced to California in 1913 from Basra, Iraq. |
6- Meaty-skinned, Tasty Rabbi Dates
| Taste and texture: | Dates have thin, meaty skin that clings to the flesh with a soft texture and has the best taste among dates; sweet, fleshy, and soft. |
| Color and size: | They are semi-dry, long, oval-shaped dates with an attractive reddish black color. Their size ranges from 3 to 5 cm. |
| Applications: | You can use these types of date fruits directly as a snack or stuff or chop them to use in cereals, puddings, bread, cakes, ice creams, and candy bars. |
| Origins: | Rabbi Date is one of the oldest and most delicious dates cultivated in Iranshahr, Zabul, Chabahar, and other cities in Sistan Baluchistan, Iran. |
7- Dry, Delicate Thoory Date Fruits
| Taste and texture: | Thoory dates are fairly dry and have a delicate nutty flavor. |
| Color and size: | The fruit in these types of dates is medium to large oblong in shape with golden-brown flesh and ripens late in the season. |
| Applications: | These dates are called the bread date due to their perfect pairing with bakeries. |
| Origins: | Thoory or Thuri is popular in Algeria. |
8- Semi-dry, Soft, Sweet Sayer Dates
Sayer dates are among the most traded date fruits due to their reasonable price and versatility. They are also liked by food producers for ease of pitting and handling, or turning them into other products such as date paste and date syrup.
| Taste and texture: | They are semi-dry dates with a uniquely soft texture and a sweet flavor. |
| Color and size: | Sayer dates are oval and about 2.5 to 4 cm long. They start yellow and turn amber to reddish and dark brown as they ripen. |
| Applications: | They are great for having a snack straight out of the pocket. You can easily pit Sayer dates and for this reason they are great for stuffing by nuts. You can also use these types of date fruits in sweet and savory dishes. |
| Origins: | Sayer dates originate from the Middle East and lands around the Persian Gulf. |
9- Soft, Sweet Dayri Dates
| Taste and texture: | Dayri dates are soft, heavy, and sweet in flavor. |
| Color and size: | These fruits are medium to large and have soft flesh and red skin. When they ripen, the skin turns from red to amber, then to a golden brown when stored. |
| Applications: | The sweet but not overly rich flavor of these types of date fruits makes them suitable for sweet and savory recipes. its large size makes it ideal for a stuffing date elegantly complemented by salty bacon and rich, creamy goat cheese. |
| Origins: | They originated from Basra, Iraq. |
10- Soft, Delightful Halawy Dates
| Taste and texture: | Halawy dates are a delightful soft type of date with a sweet caramel-honey-like flavor. |
| Color and size: | It produces a small to medium fruit with golden-brown skin and delicate and tender flesh. |
| Applications: | These types of date fruits are perfect for an afternoon snack to eat right out of your bag. |
| Origins: | The Halawy date variety is from Mesopotamia, and the name means “Sweet” in Arabic. |
11- Sweet, Crispy Sukkary Dates
| Taste and texture: | Sukkary is a sweet crispy high-quality date that is considered great for healing. The name of Sukkary is derived from “Sukkur” which means Sugar in Arabic. |
| Color and size: | Sukkary Dates are the Queen of Dates, appreciated for their golden, creamy, melt-in-your-mouth texture. |
| Applications: | These types of date fruits provide a perfect replacement for sugary treats. |
| Origins: | They are cultivated in the Al Qassim region. |
12- Sweet Chewy Khudri Dates
| Taste and texture: | Khudri dates are moderately sweet with a nice “Date” flavor, chewy but not dry. |
| Color and size: | These types of date fruits have a smooth dark brown color, not too wrinkly. Their skin flakes a little and comes in both small and large sizes. |
| Uses: | They are used as a delicious snack or sugar alternative. |
| Origins: | They are cultivated in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. |
13- Nutty, Oval-shaped, Sweet Zahidi Dates
| Taste and texture: | Zahidi dates have a rich nutty flavor which is often reminiscent of peanut butter with a dried apricot aftertaste. |
| Color and size: | They are medium-sized and oval-shaped with light brown skin and a thick, golden inner meat that encloses a single seed. |
| Applications: | It is said that consuming these types of date fruits can prevent many diseases such as indigestion and anemia while improving memory and vision. Due to their low moisture content, Zahedi is suitable for the production of date sugar. Date sugar (date powder) is gaining popularity as a sugar substitute. |
| Origins: | Zahidi means “of a small quantity” or “nobility,” cultivated around the 1900s in Northern Iraq. |
14- Chewy, Wrinkled Safawi Dates
| Taste and texture: | Safawi dates are sweeter and more flavorsome than Khudri dates. Chewiness varies with the date wrinkles: The more wrinkled the date, the harder to chew. |
| Color and size: | They are medium-sized round dates and have a dark black cherry color with hints of brown. |
| Applications: | These types of date fruits are known best for treating anemia and intoxication. Safawi Dates improve digestion, too. |
| Origins: | Safawi grows in Madinah, Saudi Arabia. |
conclusion
There are hundreds of date varieties globally, but these 14 types are the most famous in terms of taste, texture, size, and appearance.
They are used for direct consumption. They are also used for the production of other products such as date paste, date syrup, or date sugar. It may help to know that date paste bulk or date paste wholesale is offered by Ratin Khosh.
Please leave your comments in the comment section below. We love to hear your opinions and suggestions.
FAQ
your quality and services are good.
It’s hard to believe these information on such organized layout about the one type of fruits that I have liked for so many years. What an effort!!
Asalamualai Kum,
Thanks for informative website. This is the first time i read about Date.
Kindly please, tell us the best dDate variey accordinig to your understanding
Salam
Very well explained the topic, I am wondering if you had explored more on point no 8, it wud be more helpful … Anyways I am loving your blog and blogs from worldofdates.com
Very informative.
Thanks for this detailed write up.So grateful for this.
I like these topics very much. I would like to see such topics daily, this post is very good indeed. There are people like you in the world who put forth their views. Thank you so much for posting such a great post.
I actually never ate dates but I came across YouTube about the health benefits of dates , but I didn’t know anything about them.
This article was very helpful on the different types of dates and their uses.
Thank you for the information!
I like dates that are firm and chewy…..all of a sudden the ones I am getting in the store are very soft. (the store is now carrying a different brand—but both brands were medjool dates) Why are some dates soft and some dates firm and chewy?…..and how do I find the firm ones?
Hi Nancy,
Where are you located?
I know that I had some medjool dates that I had sitting around for longer and they got hard and I bought the same kind and ate them quick and they were softer. I’m not sure if this is the reason but perhaps it is the curing time.
Dear sir
As Salam Alley kum
I am looking for Dates and Dry fruit as you have
Could you please send me the list and details for your product to select for purchase
Thanks
Shaikh Mohammed Rafique,
Please go to Contact US and fill out a form. My colleague will send you the list and details.
I have gone through the 14 types of Date. I have gathered lot of knowledge.
Hi Ahmad Shah,
I am glad you liked it.