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Quick answer
Dry dates confuse more buyers than any other item on the shelf, and the reason is the names. Chuara, kharak, kali kharak and chhuhara all turn up on price lists as if they were separate things. Two of them are the same fruit under a different word.
What is the difference between chuara and kharak?
Nothing, in most of India. Chuara and kharak are two regional names for the same thing — a date that has been left to dry hard on the palm rather than sold soft. In the north it is chuara or chhuhara, in Gujarat and Rajasthan more often kharak. A shop quoting you two rates under those two names is quoting one rate twice.
Kali kharak is genuinely different. It is dried darker and longer, comes out almost black and chewier, and is the one used in winter sweets and in milk. It is priced separately because it is processed separately, and a shop that sells both will quote them apart.
What do dry dates cost per kilo?
At our counter today, dry dates work out to at today's shop rate, and the figure is read off the shop as this page loads rather than typed in and forgotten. The pack you are most likely to buy is at today's shop rate and the darker one is at today's shop rate.
| What it is called | What it looks like | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Chuara or kharak | Pale brown, hard, wrinkled skin | Milk, winter sweets, panjiri |
| Kali kharak | Near black, chewier, oilier | Laddoos, soaked in milk, eaten plain |
| Khajur | Soft and sticky, not dried hard | Eaten as it is, after a meal |
If what you actually wanted was the soft kind, that is khajur rather than chuara, and its own rates are on the khajur price page.
Why does the rate move so much between shops?
Three reasons, in order of how much money they cost you.
- Size. Dry dates are graded by count, and a larger, heavier date costs noticeably more per kilo than a small one from the same crop.
- How dry it is. A date dried harder weighs less for the same number of pieces, so a kilo of properly dried chuara gives you more dates than a kilo of half-dried ones.
- The name. A shop quoting kali kharak against another shop’s ordinary kharak is comparing two different products, and the gap is real rather than a discount.
Ask for the count or at least the size before comparing two figures. Without it, the cheaper quote is usually the smaller date.
How much should a household buy at a time?
Dry dates keep far better than nuts, so this is one of the few items where a larger pack is sensible. They have almost no free oil to turn, and a sealed jar away from the light will sit happily for three or four months. In winter, when they go into milk most mornings, a family of four will get through half a kilo a month without trying.
Two things to watch while storing them. Warmth makes them sweat and stick together, which is harmless but unpleasant to pull apart, so keep the jar away from the stove. And in a humid month they soften; a few minutes in the sun brings them back.
Which one should you buy?
For milk at night and for winter sweets, kali kharak, because it softens properly and carries more flavour into whatever it is cooked in. For panjiri, laddoos and anything where the date has to hold its shape, ordinary chuara. For eating as they are, most people prefer khajur and find dry dates too firm.
What the shop charges for either is on the page you are reading, read live, and our orders start at ₹1,000 and every order ships free, so the figure here is the figure on the bill. If the names are still doing your head in, the guide to what chuara is called in English sorts them out properly, and the rest of the shelf is on the dry fruits page.
Questions people ask
Is chuara the same as chhuhara?
Yes, only spelled differently. Chuara, chhuhara, chuhara and kharak all describe the hard-dried date. Kali kharak is the darker one and is a separate buy.
What is the price of 1 kg dry dates?
It depends on the size grade and on whether you want the pale or the dark one. Both figures are printed above and read from the shop as the page loads, so they move the day the rate does.
Are dry dates cheaper than khajur?
Usually yes, because the drying removes weight that you would otherwise be paying for in water. A kilo of dry dates also goes further, as the pieces are smaller and firmer.
How long do dry dates keep?
Three to four months in a sealed jar out of the light, which is far longer than any nut. They harden with age rather than turning, so an old one is dull rather than spoiled. You can see the full range with today’s rates on the shop page.
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Written at our counter, where these questions get asked every week.
