Greg Willsey wasn’t sure sour watermelon-dusted dates made much sense. But as a founder of Joolies, a snack brand best known for its bags of plain Medjool dates, he’d noticed that competitors and home cooks alike were starting to get a little weird with the fruit. A candy-inspired approach might work as a sort of Trojan horse to getting his company’s fresh fruit on more shelves.

格雷格·威尔西一开始并不确定裹着酸西瓜粉的椰枣是否靠谱。但作为Joolies——以销售原味椰枣而闻名的零食品牌——的创始人之一，他注意到，无论是竞争对手还是家庭烹饪者，都开始把这种水果玩出各种不无怪异的新花样。借鉴糖果风味的做法，也许能成为一种“特洛伊木马”，让公司的鲜果出现在更多货架上。

“Some people, myself included, were skeptical that it would work,” he said. When Joolies previewed its Date Sours in March at Expo West, an annual trade-show of emerging food brands, the product was just one of 250 date-based items on the floor.

“包括我在内，有些人当初对这能否成功持怀疑态度，”他说。今年3月，Joolies在新兴食品品牌年度行业展会——西部天然产品博览会上预展了旗下的酸椰枣产品Date Sours，该产品只是展会上250种椰枣类产品中的一款。

“We started seeing dates pop up two or three years ago, as an ingredient used in place of stevia and allulose,” said Adrienne Smith, Expo West’s director of content. “But this year was all about embracing the date itself. They really exploded as a snack.”

“两三年前，我们开始看到椰枣作为甜菊糖和阿洛酮糖的一种替代配料出现，”西部天然产品博览会的内容总监艾德丽安·史密斯说。“但今年的主角就是椰枣本身。作为一种零食，它们现在太火了。”

At the show, dates appeared in “every format you could possibly imagine,” including coated in candy shell, mashed into birthday cake-flavored balls and used as a sweetener in soda. “I think it’s funny, you look at a date and think, how could people possibly innovate with this? Yet somehow they did.”

在这次展会上，椰枣以“你能想象到的各种形式”出现，包括裹上糖衣外壳、压成果泥制成生日蛋糕口味能量球，以及作为汽水中的甜味剂。“我觉得很有意思，你看着一颗椰枣，心想，人们怎么可能在这上面创新呢？但他们居然真的做到了。”

Once the purview of specialty shops and health food co-ops, dates have become a supermarket darling. Wrinkled, dusky and the size of a thumb, the fruit may not be an obvious packaged-snack superstar. But a number of brands are transforming malleable dates in ways big and small to appeal to more fiber-desperate, sugar-skeptical consumers. You’ll find them in nearly every aisle: stuffed and dipped with the candy, blended into fuel near the protein bars, as alternative sweeteners alongside other baking ingredients and, of course, whole and unadulterated in the produce department.

椰枣曾是特产店和健康食品合作社的专属，如今已成为超市的宠儿。这种皱巴巴的、拇指般大小的水果颜色暗沉，乍看之下并不像是包装零食界的明星。但许多品牌正以或大或小的方式改造这种可塑性极强的水果，以迎合那些渴望补充膳食纤维、又对糖分抱有疑虑的消费者。你几乎能在超市的每一个货架区找到它的身影：夹心填充或者包裹各种外衣做成糖果、做成蛋白棒一样的能量食品，作为替代甜味剂与其他烘焙原料摆在一起，当然还有生鲜区里原汁原味的整颗椰枣。

To some, this influx may look like just another superfood getting its moment, destined to eventually go the way of the kale chip. Snack brands and retailers, however, are betting that the fruit’s best days are yet to come.

在一些人看来，这股热潮或许只是又一种超级食品迎来了自己的高光时刻，最终会像羽衣甘蓝脆片一样逐渐退潮。然而，零食品牌和零售商们押注的是：椰枣最好的日子还在后头。

First cultivated in the Middle East and Northern Africa, dates have had a place in culinary culture for millenniums, as the first bite to break a fast, as a way to welcome guests into one’s home, and as a foundational element of dishes like tagine and sticky toffee pudding. But motivating this latest surge in popularity is their nutritional profile, which aligns with dietary trends.

椰枣最早种植于中东和北非地区，数千年来在人类的饮食文化中一直占有一席之地——作为开斋的第一口食物，作为迎宾待客的礼仪，以及作为塔吉锅和太妃糖布丁等菜肴的基础食材。推动这轮热潮的是它符合当下饮食趋势的营养价值。

Consumers are shifting away from snacks with long lists of unfamiliar ingredients, opting instead for products made with whole foods they can count on one hand, Ms. Smith said. Dates, easy to manipulate and high in fiber, are a natural fit.

史密斯表示，消费者正逐渐远离那些配料表长得吓人、成分陌生的零食，转而选择由少数几种天然食材制成的产品。椰枣容易加工，又富含膳食纤维，自然成为理想之选。

In the packaged goods space, fiber is quickly catching up with protein in terms of consumer interest, with dates emerging as a simple vehicle for the macronutrient. One serving of dates (about three pieces) contains about five grams of fiber, which is a helpful step toward the daily recommendation of 25 grams per day for women and 38 grams for men — especially when the average American is consuming only 10 to 15 grams daily, according to Maya Feller, a dietitian nutritionist.

在包装食品领域，消费者对膳食纤维的兴趣正迅速追赶对蛋白质的关注，而椰枣正在成为获取这种常量营养素的简单载体。根据营养师玛雅·费勒的说法，一份椰枣（约三颗）含有约5克膳食纤维，相较于女性每日推荐摄入量25克、男性38克的标准，这是一个不小的贡献——尤其考虑到美国人平均每日摄入量仅为10至15克的情况下。

Still, she recommends managing your health-related expectations if you’re opting for one of the more altered date snacks on the market. “If it’s stuffed with peanut butter and covered in chocolate, enjoy it!” Ms. Feller said. “But don’t think it’s going to support gut health. Right? That’s a dessert.”

不过，她建议，若选购的是市面上经过较多加工的椰枣零食，不妨适当调低对健康功效的预期。“如果里面塞了花生酱、外面裹了巧克力，尽情享用就好！”费勒说，“但别指望它能促进肠道健康。对吧？那是甜点。”

Dates’ natural sweetness has also made them an attractive substitute for sugar to snack companies and consumers. “They’re lower on the glycemic index than sugar,” said Vanessa Rissetto, a dietitian nutritionist, referring to a metric that ranks foods based on how quickly they raise a person’s blood sugar. “They taste decadent, but have minimal impact on your blood sugar.”

椰枣的天然甜味也使其成为零食公司和消费者眼中理想的糖替代品。“它们的升糖指数比糖低，”营养师凡妮莎·里塞托说道，升糖指数是衡量食物引起血糖上升速度的指标。“它们口感浓郁美味，但对血糖的影响很小。”

This benefit inspired Sylvie Royston, then a practicing physician, to start Just Date. The company unveiled its first product, a date syrup, in 2018. “My mom always used dates to sweeten our Indian chutneys growing up,” she said. Just Date subsequently introduced a granulated date sugar and date-sweetened chocolate chips, and sells both to bakeries and granola companies.

正是这一益处促使当时还在行医的西尔维·罗伊斯顿创办了Just Date公司。该公司于2018年推出了第一款产品——椰枣糖浆。“我妈妈在我小时候总是用椰枣来给我们的印度酸辣酱增甜，”她说。Just Date随后推出了颗粒椰枣糖和椰枣甜味巧克力碎，并向烘焙坊和麦片品牌供货。

Just Date is less than a decade old, but it’s the established veteran in the growing date-centric C.P.G. space. Newer brands, brought to market post-pandemic and angling for shelf space, are focusing on easy snacking and splashy flavors.

Just Date成立不足十年，却已是这个蓬勃兴起的椰枣消费品领域的元老级品牌。疫情后涌入市场、争抢货架位置的新兴品牌则将重心放在方便零食和新奇口味上。

In 2022, Michelle Valdez-Wilton, a former pastry chef, started Date Better, which sells gussied-up versions of the nut butter-stuffed, dark chocolate-dipped dates that have become ubiquitous across social media. Varieties include baklava and cashew lime crisp (with toasted quinoa for texture) — bold flavor choices meant to stand out in a crowding market. “I have retailers reaching out to me saying, ‘Dates are really hot, and we’re looking for two date products to bring in,’” Ms. Valdez-Wilton said.

2022年，前糕点厨师米歇尔·瓦尔德兹-威尔顿创立了Date Better，主打在社交媒体上随处可见的经典款——坚果酱填馅、裹上黑巧克力的椰枣的精致升级版。口味包括果仁蜜饼味和腰果青柠脆片味（加入烤藜麦增加口感）——这些都是大胆的风味选择，旨在从拥挤的市场中脱颖而出。瓦尔德兹-威尔顿女士说，“有零售商主动联系我说，‘椰枣很火，我们想引进两款椰枣产品。’”

Datefix, created in 2023, sells Medjool dates blended with orange blossom water in squeezable pouches to fuel workouts. Alan Scholnick, the company’s founder, calls himself “a distance runner with a sweet tooth.” To him, Datefix is the real-food answer to function-forward running gels laden with fillers and stabilizers. The ingredients of Datefix “read like an Ottolenghi cookbook,” he said.

2023年创立的Datefix则将美卓椰枣与橙花水混合，装入可挤压的软袋里，作为运动补给品出售。创始人艾伦·肖尔尼克自称是“一个爱吃甜食的长跑运动员”。在他看来，Datefix是对那些充斥着填充剂和稳定剂的功能性跑步能量胶的天然食品替代方案。Datefix的配料表“读起来像奥托兰吉（网红厨师——译注）的食谱”，他说。

All of these new date snack brands need to get their fruit from somewhere. With sourcing under scrutiny from consumers and rising tariffs to consider, many companies are tapping the most prolific date-growing region in the United States. Farmers in the area, which stretches from the Coachella Valley in Southern California to the Arizona-Mexico border, say keeping up with demand is a struggle.

所有这些新的椰枣零食品牌都需要稳定的货源。在消费者对供应链越来越关注、关税压力又不断上升的背景下，许多公司将目光投向美国最主要的椰枣产区。从南加州科切拉谷延伸至亚利桑那-墨西哥边境一带的椰枣种植区农户表示，应对激增的需求已是力不从心。

Bautista Family Organic Dates, a family-run farm in Mecca, Calif., has both a farmers’ market presence and a thriving online business — but only until their harvest sells out, which happens quicker and quicker each year. “When we started, we only sold to local restaurants, but now we get orders from all over the U.S.,” said Alvaro Bautista, an owner. “It’s what we’ve been wishing for, but it’s a good-bad thing.”

鲍蒂斯塔有机椰枣农场位于加利福尼亚州梅卡，这家家族经营的农场既在农贸市场设有摊位，网上业务也颇为兴旺——但前提是他们还有货。如今他们的收成一年比一年更快售罄。“刚起步时，我们只向本地餐厅供货，现在却收到来自全美各地的订单，”农场主阿尔瓦罗·鲍蒂斯塔说。“这正是我们一直希望看到的，但也是一种幸福的烦恼。”

“We are facing massive supply problems on the grower side,” said Joan Smith, who turned a handful of date palms into Rancho Meladuco Date Farm, her 10-acre business outside Palm Springs, Calif. Its sampler boxes of the fruit have a devoted following. “We can’t plant new trees fast enough, and as a result, we’re all out chasing the same fruit and trying to meet our respective customer demand.”

“种植者这一端正面临严峻的供应问题，”琼·史密斯说。她将屈指可数的几株椰枣树发展成了棕榈泉郊外一座占地4公顷的兰乔梅拉杜科椰枣农场。该农场的椰枣拼装礼盒拥有一批忠实拥趸。“我们种新树的速度赶不上需求增长，因此结果就是：我们都在争抢同一批枣椰，努力满足各自客户的需求。”

That the fibrous fruit became a bottleneck-causing snack craze is not surprising to those who work in nutrition. “In the U.S., we have a ‘some is good, more is better’ mentality,” said Ms. Feller, the dietitian. “This is what we do with any food that, in its naturally occurring form, can be beneficial. People want one thing to be an end-all, be-all.”

对于营养领域从业者而言，这种富含纤维的水果引发供应瓶颈并不让人意外。“在美国，我们有一种‘有点好处就要多多益善’的思维方式，”营养师费勒说。“任何一种在天然形态下对健康有益的食物，我们都会如此对待。人们总想找到万能的解决方案。”