Dates from the Grower

Omg, you said the two magic words! Date shakes! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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same here. It is sweet alright, but also has a creamy and nutty flavor profile which most other varieties don’t have. Most other dates are pure syrup and may be cloying in sweetness.

to my taste, most other dates are better when harvested half-ripe, while still crisp or partly crisp, but already sweet.

here in vegas, the deglets have come across bear relatively bland fruits. Could be a weather-related issue, or lack of pollination, or both.

incidentally, its cousin-- Phoenix canariensis bears sweet fruits here.

It is the poor man’s deglet, practically identical to deglets in flavor, texture, and taste, but the pulp is too thin for most people.

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a fig right off the tree(as with many fruits) tastes different because many cells are still alive, so degradation has not occurred or minimally occurred. Packaged ones are already mostly dead if not outright ‘carcasses’. The sugars are still there, having been preserved, but the cells are already limp, deflated, and leaky, and the metabolic process/degradation of cell death will change the flavor. Fruits eaten straight from trees will have cells which burst with every bite.

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Forensic pathologist?

a morbid analogy i admit, lol.

perhaps a better analogy for texans would be the difference between rare/medium-rare steak and beef jerky, haha

or if you like seafood, the difference between recently caught sushi and canned tuna

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Depends on the source. In many situations the fig in the wet pack is “juicier” than the fig straight off the tree.

Deglet is my oldest daughters favorite and one of mine as well. But only the one in the wet pack. The Deglet in the “firm” pack is almost hard and a bit tough. But I can already tell that the wet pack will be the one which takes longer for us to finish. Other than Deglet, everything in the “firm” pack is pretty good. Medjool is still a bit too juicy, but Halawy and Honey are both very good.

And I like Zahidi in both boxes. A nice chewy texture. Most of the wet ones, other than Zahidi and Deglet, and too wet/gooey- if I had a dehydrator, I’d pop them in for a bit to try to make them more like the firm ones…

This is the wet box and you can see how skewed the snacking has been (half of Deglets on the right gone and only 2-3 Khadrawy on the left gone).

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you could make the others ‘more palatable’ by pitting them, then inserting walnuts, pistachios, or almonds into the cores. This seems to neutralize the overwhelming sweetness.

much like m&m’s taste so much better when with almonds or peanuts than when eaten plain.

forgot to add, deglets can be acrid if picked too soon, and seem to be better when fully ripe/dried. Others that are too sweet as dried dates, on the other hand, seem to be better when eaten fresh.
Much like with jujube varieties/jujube dates

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And thus the commercial appeal.

I’m the original brix junkie, or so some say, and I find dates too sweet and often with little flavor. Now the flavor part may be in question. But I like many other very sweet fruits better.

Well, I got my dates Friday and taste tested them over the weekend. My preferences are almost exactly the opposite of what many people like @Stan preferred! My very least favorites were Deglet Noor and Zahidi (though they were still good). TO me, these tasted pretty much like regular store-bought dates- fairly dry and average sweetness. My vary favorites were Khadrawy and Halawy. Just as everyone said, they were by far the most gooey, sweet, rich ones. As much as I loved them, after I had tried 1 of all 5 and then 2 of those I was saturated in sugar and couldn’t have forced another one down-as wonderful as they were. THese were much fresher tasting (ie more moist) than any fig I ever had. In fact, to be completely honest, it was almost entirely the texture that one me over. I’m not sure I could tell a lot of taste difference in all 5 had they all been at the same level of moisture/texture.

Overall, though, I’m really happy that I got a box and I (and my co-workers) have enjoyed them very, very much. Thank-you, @SanJoseFool, for the post and making us aware of these wonderful figs. I feel like I’ve expanded my knowledge of dates many fold!

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My wet pack variety of dates arrived tonight. Will have a tasting this weekend and report back. Spoiler have always loved deglet noors!

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little advice from me (and it sounds like others above)…Don’t over do it when you open them all excited!!! hahaha You know that awful feeling when you’ve just eaten about 10 times the amount of sugar your body can process? Yes, that was me for an hour after I finished “sampling”. Those wet figs are SOOO rich and sweet! That’s great in moderation, but no one thinks of moderation when they open such a delightful box of goodies! :slight_smile: And speaking of sugar overdose, you have to tell us how to make these date shakes of which you speak!

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Glad you enjoyed them. Funny on this thread most people like the dry but I found out about these on another forum and most people liked the wet on that thread.

For those who want their wet ones drier just keep them in the fridge and they lose moisture and start to dry out over a couple of weeks.

The dates are fabulous!

That you relish khadrawy, it goes to show you have a sweet tooth! A high threshold for brix.

they say redheads have the genetic makeup requiring higher doses of anesthesia before they start getting ‘high’. It is obvious that you(and many folks i know), have those genes which confer extreme tolerance to sugar and couldn’t get enough of it :wink:

That is really funny…but also a bit intriguing because I genuinely do think I have some kind of internal need or craving for sugar that exceeds almost anyone I know. I have an unusually large number of diabetics in my extended family and wonder if there is some connection there to extreme “sweet tooth”! Even as a kid I’d get in trouble for sneaking in the kitchen and eating things like chocolate chips or anything with sugar. :slight_smile: Even here of GF I’ve often spoke if my extreme preference for sweetness above all other characteristics of fruit. The good news is all the jujubes you were kind enough to send me were all quite sweet, so I liked them a lot!

BTW Raf, I ended up getting just one Honey Jar jujube off my own tree this year. It was definately completely ripe because it was mostly maroon colored and it literally fell off the tree when i touched it the last time. But it was not even CLOSE to being as sweet or as good as the ones you sent. So now I’m worried I’ve got another mislabeled tree on my hand? Or, are jujubes just not as sweet or good from very young trees like mine? Is it likely to improve as my tree gets older? Or perhaps my soil,climate, etc just doesn’t produce jujubes of the same quality as your warmer, hotter, drier climate. Any thoughts?

I didn’t let my HJ’s get that ripe. Was it still crisp?

that lone hj fruit was probably a dud. You should get better fruits( plural form) next year, and should ripen much sooner than it did this year… Simply post some pics of the future fruits so many of us juju folks could chime in with regards to identity.

I just ordered another 10 pounds, this time a single variety of firm Zahidi. Zahidi seems to be the 2nd most firm to start with, behind only Deglit Noor.

Maybe there is a genetic component to the wet vs firm preference as well as a taste for sugar. My daughter really likes the Deglit Noor and almost singlehandedly finished the Deglets from the firm sampler. I’m sure she’ll be campaigning for buying some of those…

That’s good to know- most of our “wet” sampler is 2/3+ full. All that is left of the “firm” sampler is Medjool. It seems the wettest and is also a bit blander than the others. It’s interesting that they charge the most for it- 50%+ vs the Zahidi and Deglet, for the same weight.

My wife, seeing that I liked dates and wanting to find a cheaper source for me, got some at Costco. But, if those were the only ones I tried, I probably wouldn’t want more. They aren’t bad- if hungry I’d eat them (no need to go hungry for a few days first, like some foods my wife eats), but don’t really appeal. They are Medjool, though slightly smaller than the ones from Bautista farms. They also have a bit less flavor and taste a bit more like a raisin.