Dates are divine fruits of the Middle East, it is an ancient fruit having the remnants of its cultivation discovered around 8000 years ago. This indicates dates to be an essential food item, a powerhouse of nutrition, and a dried fruit that existed longer than any other plant or tree.
The date palm tree that is cultivated for producing delicious dates, is treasured and considered as the ‘Tree of Life.’ Over the years, dates have become a famous mainstream fruit owing to their high nutritional content and a plethora of varieties that it comes in.
This holy fruit is brilliantly effective for health and has a great historical significance. When we talk about types of Dates, varieties are endless as you can find more than 200 types of this fruit.
Depending on the appearance, nutritional value, and flavor, some of the best and widely sold types of date fruit are listed below.
Medjool Dates
Medjool Dates are considered as the ‘Queen of Dates,’ and are deliciously soft with a chewy and fibred texture. They have a radish brown color and a sweet yet rich flavor. Medjool Dates are very large as compared to other dates. They are better enjoyed fresh since they have a high moisture content that may reduce if they are kept under the kitchen cabinet for too long. This amazing variety of dates is grown and cultivated in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Palestine, Jordan, and Mecca. Medjool Dates are famous in America and are frequently used for making smoothies.
Ajwa Dates
Ajwa Date is the best variety of date fruit having a soft juicy and rich taste, and a delightful texture. It is the most popular type of date cultivated in and exported from Mecca, Saudi Arabia. They have a dark color, wrinkly soft skin, and this fruit can retain their juicy softness for a long time. These dates are so smooth that they just dissolve in your mouth. Also, they have high nutritional content and are a major source of calcium, magnesium, potassium, Vitamin A, C, and K. There are incredible healing properties and Ajwa khajoor benefits, in a hadith, a famous prophet Mohammad claimed that consuming seven Ajwa dates in the morning and one will be protected from both poison and magic for the day.
Read More: Al Madina Ajwa Dates Khajoor (300 Gms) | From The Finest Farms Of Mecca
Maktoom Dates
Maktoom al Maktoum Dates are reddish-brown dates and have a decent taste. If you do not want your dates to be overly sweet, then Maktoom is the best date fruit for you. They have a delicate soft texture with thick fibrous skin and are large in size. They are chewy and sticky, and their flavor is quite similar to that of Medjool Dates. These dates are enjoyed fresh at any time of the day you prefer. Their juicy variety is better than the dried one since dried Maktoom Dates are less sweet and soft.
Khudri Dates
Khudri Dates have a brilliant rich taste with a lot of sweetness and appear dark-brown with a slight wrinkly texture. They have a wonderful taste and chewy soft flesh. These dates come in a variety of sizes and are amongst the most famous and widely exported dates in the world. These dates can easily last for six months when kept in an airtight container. Khudri dates are dry and sweet, and consuming them will fill you with energy for the day.
Halawy Dates
These delightfully soft, and amber-colored dates have a sweet caramel-honey flavor. Halawy Dates are an extremely sweet type of date with a chewy soft texture that melts into the mouth upon biting. There is no flaking on their soft wrinkled skin and the dates are not even sticky. Halawy variety of dates stems from Mesopotamia and the translation of their Arabic name means ‘sweet.’ They have high nutritional value and very low calories so you do not have to worry about the calories. They are an ideal food and snack to satisfy your small afternoon hunger pangs.
Zahidi dates
Zahidi dates are extremely delicious, chewy, soft, and creamy with low sugar content. These half-dried dates have a lower sugar concentration as compared to many dates such as Medjool. They are neither too small nor too big in size and come in wrinkled skin and oval-shaped texture. Their taste resembles the taste of a mixture of peanut butter and dried apricots. Once they are fully developed and luscious they turn into a light-brown color. They are also called butter dates in the Middle East owing to their decent flavor and softness. They are used in different dishes such as juices, smoothies, cookies, and even other sweet dishes. They are excellent for your stomach and brain as they help with better digestion and improved memory.
Safawi Dates
These medium-sized and palatably sweet dates are amongst the darkest color dates from Saudi Arabia. Safawai Dates have smooth, semi-dried, and are capable of their soft texture and sweet flavor for several months. They have an oblong shape and they can be crisp or soft and sweet or slightly sweet depending on their maturity and the method of cultivation. They have no flakes and have wrinkled skin with a dark color. The chewiness and softness of these dates depend on how wrinkled they are. They are the best remedy for indigestion, anemia, and intoxication. These dates are grown, ripened, and cultivated in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.
Read More: 11 Most Amazing Benefits of Eating Ajwa Dates| Rasayanam
Last thoughts
There is no paucity concerning the variety of dates that can be found around the world having high nutritional content. You can pick the dates that fit your taste preferences from the plethora of options such as dried dates, fresh dates, semi-dry dates, soft dates, etc. Dried or wrinkled dates do not mean the dates are not fresh rather it is just their texture.
