Walking through the souks (markets) of Saudi Arabia you can find every fruit possible including reasonably priced strawberries. But the one thing that is in abundance is the fruit of dates. Not being a much of a date enthusiast I was surprised to know that there are such an extensive variety. The traders sit before mountains of dates of various, shape, colour and quality of flesh.

Now for some quick date facts:

Date palms line the streets in Saudi Arabia.
The unripe dates are green in colour, then a mustard yellow and finally a reddish-brown when fully ripe.
The sugar content of ripe dates is about 80%.
Worldwide there are about 600 varieties of dates.
Saudi Arabia donates approx 16,000 tons annually to the World Food Program

We were fortunate enough to visit a date factory in Madinah called “The National Factory for Dates Packing” it was closing time and we had to forego the processing part and just skip to the end product which was in the shop end where sampling of the various fruit was encouraged. It was here we learned that the most expensive date in the world is called the Anbara which comes from Madinah

The processed dates are sold in malls and specialty dates shops across Saudi Arabia where they are further enhanced with chocolate, honey and nuts and presented as delicacies which are very alluring to shoppers and are a joy for the palate