Winter Dates

I saw a lady handling a packet of these when I was browsing at the fruit section. I caught her eyes and smiled at her and then asked her if I could just eat these dates by themselves. She replied affirmative and then even shared with me that I need to choose those which had the red skin as they tasted sweeter than the dual colored or green dates. I bought a packet and here is what I have to say about them ......

Texturewise ... they are rather crunchy like the texture of apples but the sweetness was rather mild and not at all like apple sweetness. I tried to find some more information from the web but information was limited to where they can be imported from and that is from China.
Since they are crunchy, they can be used as part of a salad dish and also in muffins and cakes too but I have yet to try using them in a salad or baking them in muffins.

I shared them with my parents and they commented that they ate these winter dates in China some years back and they were plucked fresh from the trees and they tasted very much sweeter than the ones I shared with them. They did say that when these were dried they can be use to boil soups just like the red dates we used.