What are Moroccan dates and which are the best ones?

If you travel south toward the desert, you pass through ribbons of date palms — the famous oases of the Draa and Tafilalt valleys around Erfoud and Zagora — and the dates that come from them are some of the finest on earth. The king of them is the Mejhoul (you may know it as Medjool): huge, glossy, with flesh so soft and caramel-rich it tastes like toffee, and a perfume of honey and dried fruit. Holding a perfectly ripe Mejhoul and biting through that fudgy sweetness is one of the simple great pleasures of a Moroccan trip.

But the Mejhoul is only the headline. Connoisseurs prize the Boufeggous for its balance and keeping quality, the small intense Bouskri, the Najda and the Aziza Bouzid for their delicate flavour. At a date souk — Erfoud's is legendary, and Rissani holds a wonderful market — you'll see them sorted by variety and grade, and a good seller will happily let you taste your way along the counter before you buy.

Dates are woven into daily life and ritual. They're offered with a bowl of milk or buttermilk to welcome a guest into the home — a gesture of hospitality you may well receive. They appear stuffed with almond paste at celebrations, simmered into tagines with lamb, and they're the traditional food to break the fast at sunset during Ramadan, because a couple of dates and some milk gently restore the body.

My advice: buy your dates in the south where they're freshest and cheapest, ask specifically for Mejhoul if you want the showstopper, and pick up a mix of varieties to taste the range. They travel home beautifully and make a far more memorable souvenir than a fridge magnet.