sun dried Kaki rings, in raw vegetable quality, vegetarian, from Uzbekistan

Ingredient: dried rings of Kaki *

* produced from certified organic cultivation

The fruit of Zeus from virgin nature!

Kaki is also referred as the fruits of Japanese Persimmon. The orange to reddish colored Kaki fruit is aromatic, sweet and has a strong flavor resembling apricot or a peach. Its shape resembles a large round tomato. The flesh is very soft, somewhat lighter in color and can contain up to eight seeds. It weighs up to 500 g. The four sepals are attractive and are located directly on the top of the fruit. The Kaki tree is similar to the apple tree and reaches a height of up to ten meters.

The Kaki belongs to the family Ebenaceae and to the genus Diospyros, which most often refers to "Divine Pear" and consequently the "Fruit of Zeus". Honey Apple is a relative of the Kaki but is rather yellowish, oval persimmon and appears more yellowish and flat Sharon fruit. In comparison to Kaki fruit, the Sharon fruit has different quantity of tannin. Tannin  also present in wine, green and black tea contain, is a tanning agent with astringent effect. While the Sharon fruit can also be eaten when unripe as it contains very little or no tannin, it is essential in case of Kaki fruit, that it must be consumed only when fully ripe since it contains tannin.

The Kaki is a very old cultivated plant and is native to Asia. In China, it is being cultivated for more than 2000 year. Here it is also known as the "Chinese plum. There are four main specialities of Kaki fruit, they are durable, it provides shade, it is used by birds as a nesting place and is not attacked by pests.
The initial European records date back to the year 1768 and belong to a botanist who traveled with James Cook. But the Kaki fruit was actually studied for the first time in the 17th Century by Matteo Ricci, during his stay in China. Today, the Kaki fruit is a „national fruit“ of Japan and Korea. Till date, there are up to 2,800 different varieties of the Kaki fruit.

In Asian region, Kaki fruit is believed to have various healing properties. It is said that it strengthens the stomach and helps with diarrhea. It is supposed to provide relief with a hangover after huge consumption of rice wine, so they are in dried as a precaution in Japan on New Year. Moreover, the Kaki fruit has a high content of provitamin A and beta carotene.

Our organic Kaki fruits are obtained from our own certified organic plantations in Uzbekistan. Here they are grown along the Silk Road in the hot summers and bear an extremely intensive flavored fruits. The Kaki trees were not converted from conventionally grown to organic cultivation, but instead they were organic trees from the beginning. Therefore they have never been in contact with pesticides. In order to guarantee that our products are 100% free from pesticides, they are inspected by an independent accredited Austrian laboratory in batches.

In Uzbekistan, they are taken care by gentle labor and the harvesting as well as drying (solar drying) is undertaken by our subsidiary Silk Road Organic (organic) Foods. Uzbekistan lies in Central Asia, along the famous Silk Road. Silk Road Organic (organic) Food has its main processing site near Samarkand and specializes in the production of organic (eco) dried fruits and organic nuts. The production is yielded by environmental friendly solar dryers that do not damage the product. All this is regularly monitored by the ABG (Austrian Organic Guarantee) and is certified as per the EC Eco regulation (EU 834/2007) and NOP (Nation Organic Program).

Our organic Kaki fruits are harvested only when they are fully ripe which is very important. After plucking and washing, the leaves of fruit are removed by hand and the fruits are cut into slices. Then the rings of Kaki are gently and slowly dried in the sun on our own solar dryers (sun drying). This ensures that all the essential ingredients as well as the flavor is completely retained. Our soft organic Kaki rings are a 100 % natural product. The taste changes slightly after drying, they taste more like a mango.

Our high quality dried organic Kaki rings do not contain any additives like preservatives or dyestuffs and are not sweetened and non-sulphurized.
We disinfest (disinfestation) our organic Kaki rings, so that there is no loss of quality due to infestation of insects.

Our dried Organic rings of Kaki are a perfect alternative to traditional dried fruits due to their aromatic and juicy taste. We recommend that you cut it as a vegetarian snack for munching in between meals or in cubes as an ingredient for your homemade yogurt, cottage cheese, cereal or muffins or cakes.

Nutritive value :
100 g approximately contain:

Calorific value: 272 kcal / 1140 kJ
Protein: 2.5 g
Carbohydrate: 61.3 g
Fat: 1.1 g
Fiber: 11.5 g