What Are Khadrawy Dates?

Khadrawy (also spelled Khadrawi) is the connoisseur’s soft date — a dark, reddish-brown Iraqi variety famous for a melt-in-your-mouth texture that even Medjool fans concede is remarkable. It’s grown by only a few California farms, mostly in the Coachella Valley, and it almost never reaches a store shelf.

Taste and texture

Khadrawy is prized for softness above all: a tender, almost creamy flesh with a rich, sweet, lightly molasses flavor. The fruit is mid-sized and the skin delicate — which is exactly why it’s loved fresh and rarely shipped. Among old-time date people, “Khadrawy” is shorthand for the softest eating in the palm family.

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 →

Why it’s hard to buy

That delicacy cuts both ways: thin skin and high moisture mean Khadrawy doesn’t store or travel like commercial varieties. The farms that grow it mostly sell at farmers markets, in season, until it’s gone.

The honest note: we don’t grow Khadrawy

Our Sky Valley grove grows jumbo Medjool, golden Zahidi, and seasonal Barhi. If Khadrawy’s melt-soft richness is what you’re after, a fresh jumbo Medjool — whole, pit-in, shipped days out of cold storage — is the closest you can get delivered: the pit keeps the moisture in, and farm-direct fruit never spends weeks drying on a shelf. That freshness difference is most of what people miss when they can’t find Khadrawy.

From our grove instead

Farm-direct with shipping included to the lower 48: jumbo Medjool, $19 for 1 lb down to $9.83/lb by the box. One harvest a year — this season’s fruit is selling now.

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