Early October is the time of year when mountains of mottled green and brown fresh jujubes (or Chinese dates, zao) can be found piled up in the green grocers. These crisp fruits are similar to apples in flavor with a slightly drier texture. I find I can sit munching on them for hours. As the month progresses, they lose their lime green color and become progressively mahogany brown.
The fully mature fruit is plump and reddish brown in color. As time passes they lose their moisture and become shriveled, giving their flesh a somewhat spongy texture. At this point they are usually referred to as hong zao (red dates) and are commonly used as flavorings in tea, hot pot stock or as ingredients in sweet congee.
Hole-in-the-wall bakers often sell film-wrapped slices of sticky rice cake made with jujube at breakfast and early lunch, and if you're lucky you may find an early morning street vendor serving it up hot. Dried jujube are widely available in Chinese supermarkets, often sold loose alongside various other tea ingredients such as rock sugar, dried lemon slices and flowers.
Sometimes the fresh fruit is smoked before it is dried to produce black jujube (hei zao) which intensifies their flavor and adds an interesting smoky note to the sweetness.
Alternative preparations of the dried fruit include candying with sugar or honey - delicious but you would certainly restrict your intake of these to a few at a time as they pack quite a sugar punch.
Jujubes have been cultivated in China for more than 4,000 years with around 40 different cultivars. Unsurprisingly they are a frequent feature of traditional Chinese medicine, used in treatments for sore throats (possibly due to their mucilaginous nature), stress, and constipation (perhaps due to the laxative effect of the fiber) amongst other things.
Jujube seeds (zao ren) - are traditionally used as a reasonably effective indigenous treatment for insomnia, and scientific studies show they contain a chemical called spinosin that is known to have a sedative effect.
The cultivation of jujubes is common throughout Asia and indeed in many other parts of the world.
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