Gaomi Honey Dates

Gaomi Honey Dates

　　Gaomi Large Honey Dates are named for their resemblance to large jujubes and their coating of honey syrup. They have a purplish-red appearance and come in either round or spherical shapes. With thin skins, ample filling, a soft and crisp texture that doesn’t crack, a fragrant honeyed sweetness, and a refreshing taste that isn’t cloying, these dates have over 300 years of production history.

　　 　　China’s culinary culture has a long and rich heritage, and regional snacks each have their unique flavors. “Food is the paramount necessity of the people,” and this refers not only to staple grains. Regional snacks offer distinctive tastes worth trying. Be sure to sample Gaomi’s small steamed buns and large honey dates.

　　 　　Gaomi’s Large Honey Dates are world-renowned for their thin, crispy skin, fragrant honeyed sweetness, and delicious taste that isn’t greasy. They are highly popular among consumers and make excellent gifts for family and friends, as well as ideal treats for daily consumption or festive banquets.

　　 　　Gaomi’s non-staple food processing industry has a long history, traditionally focusing on pastries. The main products include Large Honey Dates, Small Honey Dates, Water Cakes, Open Smile Pastries, Phoenix Tail Crisps, Sesame Slices, Big Flatbreads, and more. This tradition dates back to the mid-Qing Dynasty. By the 1920s and 1930s, there were nearly 100 pastry workshops in Gaomi City. According to elders, the most renowned shops at the time were Hu Shaoqing’s “Yonghe,” Cui Shuming’s “Yuxiangzhai,” and Fu Zhilin’s “Jiuda.” In 1953, during the public-private partnership period, the Gaomi Urban District Cooperative established a Pastry Processing Department, whose staff mostly comprised master artisans and skilled disciples from private pastry shops. In 1956, it was reorganized into a Pastry Factory, which became the Gaomi Non-Staple Food Processing Plant in 1976, and then the Non-Staple Food Factory in 1986. During this period, there were three pastry factories across the county, with over 100 varieties of pastry products, mainly featuring Large Honey Dates. During the transition from a planned to a market economy, the quality of Gaomi pastries—especially Large Honey Dates—declined for a time, leading to a significant shrinking of the market. The Non-Staple Food Factory also faced hardships and nearly went bankrupt. In recent years, Gaomi has strengthened support policies, rescuing, excavating, and organizing traditional handicrafts. By building on tradition while innovating, the local pastry industry has regained vitality, with its flagship product, Large Honey Dates, entering a new period of prosperity. Export volumes have increased, and the future looks promising.

　　 　　Gaomi Large Honey Dates are a traditional handmade snack. Through generations of refinement and accumulated expertise, a complete set of successful methods has been developed in selecting ingredients, flavoring, formulation, processing, production, and packaging. The primary ingredients for Large Honey Dates are honey, sesame oil, sesame seeds, cane sugar, and flour, with auxiliary ingredients including rose petals, rock sugar, red and green silk threads, peach kernels, rice paste, and others. The rice paste used is the high-viscosity, long-thread, sweet-tasting large-grain maltose paste from Xiazhuang in Gaomi; the sesame seeds are selected for their large size, plumpness, and strong aroma from Shuangyang in Gaomi; the honey is chosen for its rich fragrance, high sweetness, and authentic taste—specifically, the wild jujube flower honey from Puzhi in Jiaoxian County; and the rose petals come from Wulian. The traditional production process involves first sorting the sesame seeds and rubbing them in a winnowing basket with a steel brick to remove the skins; mixing flour ground from stone mills with sesame oil and cane sugar to form a sweet-oil dough; wrapping fillings such as rose petals, rock sugar, red and green silk threads, peach kernels, melon seeds, and rice paste inside the sweet-oil dough skin; and then going through processes such as deep-frying, boiling sugar, adding honey, coating with sugar, and rolling in sesame seeds to produce the fragrant and sweet Large Honey Dates. What sets Gaomi Large Honey Dates apart is not only the careful selection of ingredients but also their thin skin that doesn’t crack, their fragrant yet non-burnt texture after frying, their fully cooked yet non-mushy consistency, and the precise control of the sugar-boiling heat—all ensuring that when the finished dates are broken apart, they can be pulled into threads. Gaomi Large Honey Dates are perfectly round in shape, with loose but intact filling, thin skins that don’t crack, evenly distributed sesame seeds on the surface, neither raw nor burnt, a light yellow color with a sweet aroma, delicious and pure flavor, and rich nutrition. They weigh eight to a pound, all uniform in size. Current annual production is around 100 tons, with most sales going to urban and rural areas of Gaomi, as well as Jinan, Qingdao, Weifang, Beijing, and the three northeastern provinces. Foreign investors coming to Gaomi and overseas tourists often like to take some back to taste or share with family and friends. Gaomi Large Honey Dates have truly become cultural “envoys” of international exchange.