What Are Black Gold Dates?

“Black Gold” is a trade name you may have seen at Southern California farmers markets — used by a desert grower for a very dark, molasses-rich date selection. It’s not a classic variety name you’ll find in the old USDA date catalogs; it’s a farm’s own name for its darkest, richest fruit, and the name does its job: people remember it.

What dark dates taste like

The darker a date cures, the deeper the flavor runs — away from light honey and toward molasses, toffee, and burnt caramel. Dates sold under dark-selection names deliver exactly that: intense, almost candy-like sweetness with a dense, chewy flesh. If regular dates are honey, these are dark brown sugar.

We grow these. Fresh Jumbo Medjool Dates — Shipping Included | California Farm-Direct from our family farm in Sky Valley, California — from $19/lb, shipping included. See them →

Where to find them

Named farm selections like this are typically farmers-market fruit — sold by the grower, in season, while supplies last. That’s part of the charm and all of the inconvenience.

The honest note — and the dark-caramel fruit we do ship

We don’t sell anything called Black Gold. What we grow on our Sky Valley farm is jumbo Medjool — and a fully ripened, cold-stored Medjool is the deep-caramel experience most people are hunting when a dark date catches their eye: glossy, mahogany-dark, dense with toffee sweetness. Ours ship whole and pit-in, days out of the farm’s cold room, with shipping included to the lower 48 at posted prices — $19 for 1 lb down to $9.83/lb on the 12 lb box.

From our grove

If dark and caramel-deep is your flavor, this season’s jumbo Medjool is selling now — one harvest a year, farm-direct from the Coachella Valley’s quiet end.

Desert Sun Dates is a family farm in Sky Valley, California. Curious about other varieties? See our guide to the different types of dates.