Date Syrup

Date syrup, also called date honey, date molasses, debes or rub, is a thick, dark brown, very sweet syrup extracted from dates and widely used across Middle Eastern, North African and South Asian cooking. It has ancient roots, appearing abundantly in desserts in ancient Mesopotamia, and archaeological evidence from Jerusalem, including a storage jar marked with a palm tree found in ruins from the 586 BC siege of the city, shows it was made and stored there in biblical times; the first century historian Josephus wrote that quality dates, when pressed, yield an excellent honey not much inferior in sweetness to bee honey, and remains of a date press for making it have been found at Qumran from the same period. The syrup is rich in the simple sugars glucose and fructose, absorbed quickly into the bloodstream, and contains more magnesium and potassium than maple syrup or honey along with antioxidant phenolic and flavonoid compounds.