Jujubes in Season

The Lovely One and I were walking on the beach and we met our friend Evan. He gave us some jujubes which are in season again. I notice that it was in February of last year that I wrote about jujubes. Here is what I wrote:

We used to eat a candy of the same name. However, don't let the name fool you. These things don't taste like candy. They taste like a sweet concoction of apple and baby vomit.

The scientific name is Ziziphus zizyphus, and they are also called jujuba, Rhamnus zizyphus, Jujube, Red Date, and Chinese Date. The Koreans use them as medicine to relieve stress, and there is an Australian drink called "1-bil" which uses these things as a pick-me-up drink to relieve stress.

The Chinese dry and smoke the fruit, and also make a wine and vinegar from them. You can also get a syrup to go into your tea from the jujubes. Asians consider the fruit and aphrodisiac and in Bhutan, the leaves are used as an insecticide potpourri.

Jujubes have a large seed in them and resemble a Barbados cherry in texture but not in taste. Our friend Evan said that they were an acquired taste. They certainly were. I forced myself to get over the "vomit" taste and ate the bowlful, because they might have tropical micro-nutrients that my body was missing, but I don't see these things getting popular anytime soon.