Your experience with DATES?

[goodsamaritan]

I saw some dates in my in laws' refrigerator today.

They tasted pretty good.

I remember the vegan promoter Dr. Tam Mateo promote dates.

How about you?  Are dates raw?  Do they do you any good?

[RomanK]

I like them TOO much! They are very addictive. Probably in very moderate qnt could be good but It is very difficult to get "stop" signal. According to inflammation index they are very much pro-inflammation (if belive source of info). IMHO, I drop them for good...

[achillezzz]

I like em with tea! someone told me once that its good for your testicles or something haha

[TylerDurden]

The various dates I've eaten always resulted in some weird black gunge coming out of the side of my eyes, for a few days afterwards, making it look, bizarrely, as though I was wearing some sort of mascara or eyeshadow which was coming off. I figure, there must be nasty chemicals in them. Plus, I vaguely recall someone claiming that all commercial dates sold are invariably steamed beforehand - not sure re this, though.

[Josh]

I've had raw undried dates a couple of times..they're a yellow fruit, bland and mealy Ok but nothing special. I like the dried medjool dates. I might eat some organic ones for Christmas.

[Iguana]

Most commercial dates are treated either by steam, deep freezing (Californian dates) or a gas to kill the insects that could be on it. Some are even coated with glucose. The only dates I trust are the ones from Orkos. They have about 20 varieties !
http://store.orkos.com/eng/raw-food/dates.html

I don't have any problems with them, as long as I'm careful to stop at the slightest feeling of "too sweet" starting to be unpleasant in the mouth, and also as long as they are not eaten in the same meal with meat or other animal food. It's better to eat it alone.

[yuli]

Wow 20 kinds 
I prefer prunes because they are less sweet but some dates can be real good.
I recently got the "Fresh Dates" from Moshkan brand ( http://www.moshkandate.com ), from Iran... they are the Rotab Mozafati type, like this from your site: http://store.orkos.com/eng/raw-food/dates/date-mozafati-soft.html
I think it could be from the same guy.
I don't know how raw they are but looking at the site they use no pesticides and grow them traditionally. They look pretty raw/fresh to me and sure taste like it, insanely sweet though, it competes with honey, I could only eat one or two. The "skin" looks nice and clean, not crystallized. It leaves a nice "burn" in my mouth after, like so sweet its spicy 

[TylerDurden]

I've had raw undried dates a couple of times..they're a yellow fruit, bland and mealy Ok but nothing special. I like the dried medjool dates. I might eat some organic ones for Christmas.

I've eaten the dried organic medjool dates quite a bit, before. I would be surprised if they weren't steamed.

[Iguana]

I could only eat one or two. The "skin" looks nice and clean, not crystallized. It leaves a nice "burn" in my mouth after, like so sweet its spicy 

Mozafati dates are really sweet and tasty! This producer looks good, and if you can't eat more than one or two, they are most probably raw and ok.

[michaelwh]

I've had raw undried dates a couple of times..they're a yellow fruit, bland and mealy Ok but nothing special. I like the dried medjool dates. I might eat some organic ones for Christmas.

I've also eaten these yellow undried dates. You need to leave them on the counter for at least few weeks (possibly longer), and they will eventually become soft and dark brown and quite tasty and sweet. They're no good when hard and yellow.

[Sully]

I had fresh dates in Jordan. There is a red and yellow variety I tried. They are somehwat bitter if they have some green. As they ripen that strt to turn black/brown and soft and sweet. The red and yellow have a very distnct taste. The red having a stronger stop signal for me also. I like the yellow more. I also had a smaller hard date, not soft and seemed more what a wild date would be like. Thin flesh and very hard.


These are fresh one I had on the upper right hand.

[Sully]

Fresh dates with a bit of ripening are the best way to go. I like them when they are crunchy but start to get little black spots. dates are good at all stages. In a desert people would have experienced all the stages of dates. Fresh, fresh with black spots, fresh fully black soft and sweet. Then finally dried date.

[Sully]

In Jordan they had a name for fresh date which sounded like "bellehh". Dried date was called something like "temer".
I am just spelling it out the way it sounded.
Cool they had 2 names for dried and fresh.

[Sully]

Aye, and those grapes had seeds!!!!!!!!!

All the grapes I had there had seeds!

Edit: and the bananas were bland surprisingly

[SteakNchop]

Aye, and those grapes had seeds!!!!!!!!!

All the grapes I had there had seeds!

Edit: and the bananas were bland surprisingly

I have never quite figured out how to eat grapes with seeds in them.

[Iguana]

In Europe, almost all the grapes have seeds! You eat the whole grape with its seeds, what's the hell?

Yes, fresh dates are delicious.

Beautiful fruits platter, by the way, Sully!

[yuli]

Yeah you can eat the whole grape but its easy to spit the seeds out as you eat them, they are kinda bitter seeds.
I had no idea people didn't know how to eat grapes though, lol 

The bananas were bland? hmmm so far all bananas seem pretty bland to me, they don't have any strong taste as I remember.

[Sully]

Yeah, I just swallow the seeds, sometime sthey get munched by accident.

@yuli It's just was not as sweet as other bananas. It was local, they grow some bananas there. Perhaps the soil or variety. I was surprised, expecting it to be really sweet at the ripeness it was.

[subfarm]

I love dates, but I'll only eat two or three at the most. They are so incredibly sweet to me. I'll take them if my energy wanes, or to hold me over until I can eat a meal.

[Hannibal]

I love the taste of good quality raw dates (about 20$ per kilo)
They are indeed very sweet.
AFAIK gladiators in Ancient Rome ate a lot of dates.

[subfarm]

I love grapes with seeds. It's so fun to collect a bunch in my cheeks and spit them out. It seems a lot of times though I accidentally buy the seedless kind and I get disappointed.
Dates are also fun because I like carrying the pits around in my mouth for a little while, rolling them around a bit before I spit them out. I like the texture on my gums and cheeks.

[yuli]

Dates are also fun because I like carrying the pits around in my mouth for a little while, rolling them around a bit before I spit them out. I like the texture on my gums and cheeks.

I LOVE DATE PITS XD I will also chew them and play with them in my mouth, I love how they are covered with these stringy things and this kinda velvety skin, fun.

Have you tried the little wine grapes, they are tiny round black grapes and the flesh is kinda neon green with huge seeds in it. They are tarty and sour yet sweet - very nice.

[goodsamaritan]

a lot of dates.

Sounds like a good source for high amounts of raw carbs.

[ForTheHunt]

Because they are sooo high in sugar, they will cause a lot of inflammation if you over eat them. The key with dates is moderation. Eat a very small handfull at once no more than that. And eat them slowly.

[RawZi]

    Isn't it AV's favorite fruit?  I don't mean for recommending, but for himself.