I really should start looking at the ingredients list before I buy things…

There’s a few different Asian supermarkets I use in the Munich area and on my most recent visit, I saw these. The packaging was pink and cute – I liked the hand drawn artwork design and the image looked like a fruit. Not knowing what a jujube was, I figured I should find out!

The pack front has the words “Healthy Doctrine” – which seemed like an unusual branding choice for something so sugar soaked. I’ll let you be the judge of that – don’t miss the bottom of the post!

Me being me, I took a few pictures (which I don’t like but I’m not doing them again) and opened one. It looked exactly like the photo on the front, which I suspected might have been some sort of dried plum variety. It felt sugar sticky and I took a bite…

It’s a date! Of sorts. There’s not much of the rich, caramel, toffee flavour we would normally associate with our standard varieties. However it had enough datey flavour that I felt confident I knew what it was.

There’s a soft squishyness to them and you can absolutely tell they’ve been in some sort of sugar bath. It’s a lovely, almost gooey, dried fruit texture with a mild honey flavour. So mild in fact that even the staunchest of honey-haters shouldn’t mind it. I liked them! Now to find out what they were…

Had I flipped the bag over at the start, I’d have seen the little sticker put on for the various countries in which this is sold. At the top it says “Ejiao Honey Jujube (dates)”. Ingredients: Jinsi Jujube (50%), sugar, maltose, honey (0.2%), salt, ejiao (0.2%). I’m gonna break this apart with Google.

A jujube is a Chinese date. Although unrelated to the dates we’re used to consuming, they share similar size, colour and flavour characteristics, accounting for the naming similarity. It’s also a fruit used in Chinese medicine.

The Chinese have found that the wild jujube fruit improves the health of the body. In fact, the common belief is that if the fruit is taken on a daily basis, it will improve skin color and tone, both signs of physical well being. | mdidea.com

Next up – Ejiao is… donkey hide gelatine.

It comes with plenty of common names, including Donkey-hide Glue, Asini Corii Gelatinum, Ass-hide Glue | Chinese Herbs Healing

It gets better!

In Chinese medicine, this herb has developed a reputation as an effective gynecological medicine thanks to its amazing performance on nourishing yin and supplementing blood, miscarriage prevention, emmeniopathy treatment, and so on. | Chinese Herbs Healing

In conclusion then, if you’re not opposed to eating medicinal ass-hide glue with a roughly 50% sugar content per portion of fruit AND happen to desire both improved skin tone and need some sort of menstrual relief, these are for you! 😂