The beautiful skin in this article belongs to a date, not a face. A date builds its own skin on the palm, and whether that skin ends up yellow, red or near-black, and whether it wrinkles, depends on the variety and on how far the fruit ripened before it was picked. This page follows that natural process stage by stage and then looks at what it means when you buy dates in Malaysia. It makes no claim that eating dates does anything for your own skin.
Five stages on the palm
The FAO handbook on date palm cultivation splits the growth of a date into five stages. It uses the Arabic names, because there are no English equivalents: hababouk, kimri, khalal, rutab and tamar.
Hababouk comes first, soon after fertilisation. The fruit is about the size of a pea and is still completely covered by its calyx, with only the sharp end of the ovary showing.
Kimri is the green stage. The fruit is hard, apple green and not fit to eat. It is also the longest stage, lasting nine to fourteen weeks depending on the variety.
Khalal is where colour arrives. The skin turns from green to greenish yellow, yellow, pink, red or scarlet, depending on the variety, and by the end of this stage the fruit has reached its full size and weight. A few varieties are eaten at khalal. The FAO names Barhee, Hallawi, Hayani and Zaghloul.
Rutab, the soft and wet stage
Rutab means wet. Ripening starts at the tip, which turns brown or black and goes soft. The FAO notes that the last of the tannin under the skin settles out in this stage, so the fruit loses any astringency.
Rutab fruit does not keep well on its own. Unless it is cold stored, the handbook says, it quickly turns sour and loses its commercial value. In Malaysia it is also written rotab, as in Rotab Mazafati Bam. Mazafati comes from Bam in Kerman province, Iran, is dark, very soft and high in moisture, and needs refrigeration. Mazafati is cold-chained, which is why rotab Mazafati is on sale all year.
Tamar, where wrinkles are normal
Tamar is the fully ripe stage. The skin changes from yellow to dull brown or almost black. In most varieties it stays attached to the flesh and wrinkles as the flesh shrinks, and both skin and flesh keep darkening with time. By now the fruit has lost most of its water, and the sugar left behind is concentrated enough to stop fermentation. The FAO calls this the best condition for storage.
So in most varieties a wrinkled skin is what ripening normally produces. Ajwa, the small, roundish, near-black date from Madinah, has finely wrinkled skin and soft flesh. Piarom, a dark semi-dry date from Iran, has a thin skin.
A label that says Madinah names a place rather than a single variety (see Kurma Madinah Green diamond). Ajwa, Safawi and Mabroom all come from the Madinah region, and they look quite different. Safawi is longer than Ajwa and dark brown to black. Mabroom is long, slender and reddish-brown.
One bunch, several pickings
Dates on a single bunch do not reach tamar together. They ripen over almost a month, so three to four harvests are needed. Whole dates are sold at three of the five stages (khalal, rutab and tamar) depending on the variety, the climate and what the market wants. Every stage except tamar is perishable because of its high water content.
What this means when you buy dates in Malaysia
Malaysia has no commercial date-growing trade. Every date on sale here is imported, whether it comes through this site or through suppliers such as Supplier Kurma Green diamond. Gulf and Middle East dates are mostly harvested from late summer to autumn, and new-season stock reaches Malaysia some weeks later.
The two ripeness words on Malaysian labels match the last two stages above. Rutab or rotab means the soft, fresh-ripe stage, and tamar or tamr means the fully ripe, drier one. Deglet Noor is a golden, translucent, semi-dry date from Tunisia and Algeria, and when it is sold on the stem here it goes by kurma tangkai.
The About Us page says Date Fruit Exporter serves retail and wholesale buyers and delivers across Malaysia. To ask for a quote on a particular variety, use the WhatsApp number on the Contact Us page, or browse the other articles on the blog.