Black Dates: Safawi, Ajwa, Khadrawy & the Dark-Date Family Explained

“Black dates” isn’t one variety — it’s a family of dark-skinned dates plus a few market names, and people searching for them usually mean one of five different fruits. We grow dates in California’s Coachella Valley, and while our own varieties run golden to deep mahogany, we know the dark end of the spectrum well. Here’s the honest map.

The true black varieties

• Safawi — the classic black date: long, semi-dry, nearly jet black, grown around Madinah, Saudi Arabia. Moderately sweet with a dried-fruit depth; the everyday dark date of the Gulf.
• Ajwa — small, soft, matte-black, grown only in the Madinah region, and revered in Islamic tradition. We wrote a full honest Ajwa vs Medjool comparison.
• Khadrawy — the dark one that IS grown in California: a soft Iraqi variety that cures to deep reddish-black. Many call it the softest date of all — here’s our Khadrawy explainer.
• Black Sphinx — Arizona’s heirloom: a chance seedling discovered in Phoenix in the 1920s, small, soft, and nearly black, still grown in a few historic groves. A genuine American original.

The market names

Then there are the farm-stand names: “Black Gold,” “Black Beauty” and similar labels you’ll see at valley stands and farmers markets. These are growers’ house names for very dark, molasses-rich fruit rather than formal cultivars in their own right — often a dark-curing variety or a seedling the farm has named for itself. Nothing wrong with that (naming your best fruit is an old desert tradition), but it’s worth knowing the label describes the fruit’s look more than a pedigree. We keep a short explainer on the “Black Gold” name here.

We grow these. Golden Zahidi Dates — Nutty, Less Sweet, Never Sticky | California Farm-Direct from our family farm in Sky Valley, California — from $15/lb, shipping included. See them →

Is Medjool a black date?

No — but it’s closer than people think. A fresh, well-cured jumbo Medjool runs deep mahogany-brown, and in low light a bowl of them reads nearly black. If what draws you to black dates is the look and the deep caramel-molasses register, soft dark Medjool is the closest fruit that ships fresh from a California farm — and the full variety guide maps the rest of the spectrum, golden Zahidi included.

Buying advice from a grower

True Safawi and Ajwa are imports — buy them from a Middle Eastern grocer or importer you trust, and expect Ajwa to cost real money (and be suspicious when it doesn’t). Khadrawy and Black Sphinx are small-crop domestic fruit that sell out fast and rarely ship far. And if a stand sells you a “black” date under a house name, just ask what variety it started as — an honest grower will tell you.

The dark, soft one we grow: jumbo Medjool, picked and shipped from our Sky Valley farm, shipping included — Shop Medjool →