Dried persimmon: 2000 years of history, from ancient China to the tea ceremony
Monday is a tough day, so today let's start with a little question. The answer will surprise even those who know their dried fruits well.
What do the emperors of the Han dynasty, the Japanese tea master Sen no Rikyu and the founder of the Ming dynasty have in common? They all valued the same product and considered it a luxury. Can you guess what it was?
It's dried persimmon. One of the world's oldest delicacies. It's more than 2000 years old. It's mentioned in Japanese state codes. It was paid as tribute to Chinese emperors. And in the 16th century, it was served at a tea ceremony together with history's most famous tea master.
And what's especially striking: the drying technique has barely changed over the centuries.
The currency of an ancient Chinese emperor
Persimmon comes from China. It was already being cultivated during the Han dynasty, which spans 202 BCE to 220 CE, more than 2000 years ago. Archaeologists find persimmon seeds in even much older layers.
Already back then, dried persimmon was valued as a rare delicacy. In ancient China, dried persimmon from certain regions was offered to the imperial court as tribute. Ordinary people didn't eat it. It was a treat reserved for the aristocracy.
The word “persimmon” in Chinese sounds like 柿 (shi). Today more than 2000 varieties of this fruit are grown in China, each with its own history and flavor.
A single dried whole dried persimmon fruit contains an amount of sugar equivalent to about 3-4 teaspoons of honey. That's exactly why it was an energy source for travelers on the Silk Road.
927 CE: when persimmon made it into an imperial code
After a few centuries, the drying technique reached Japan. And in 927 CE, persimmon was mentioned for the first time in a state document. It was an official code that gathered together all of the era's Japanese laws and customs.
The Engi-shiki (延喜式) is the first written document to describe the technique for drying persimmon. The method hasn't changed once in 1100 years.
What was described in 927 CE is still exactly what the Japanese do today. The skin is removed by hand, the fruits are hung on strings, every few days each piece is massaged by hand, and then you wait 4-6 weeks.
Industrial drying today is 100 times faster. But it's the hand-crafted technique that still remains the benchmark. That's exactly what all quality dried persimmon continues to reproduce to this day.
Sen no Rikyu: the tea master who loved persimmon
In 16th-century Japan lived a man without whom the Japanese tea ceremony as we understand it today wouldn't exist. His name was Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591). He served at the courts of two of the era's most powerful rulers and is still considered the “father” of the Japanese tea tradition.
It was Sen no Rikyu who served dried persimmon to his guests during the tea ceremony. And it wasn't just food. It was the first “candy” in Japanese history, long before sugar sweets were invented.
The white “frost” on dried persimmon isn't mold, as many mistakenly believe. It's crystallized natural sugar that comes to the surface during slow drying. The Japanese call it “persimmon frost” (shiso) and consider it a sign of the very highest quality.
The very same product that was served at the shogunate in the 16th century is available today as well. For example, our whole dried persimmon, made using the same thousand-year-old technology.
“The Kobe beef of the fruit world”
Modern chefs call premium Japanese dried persimmon “the Kobe beef of the fruit world.” The reason is that the process demands a huge amount of labor. A single artisan produces only a few kilograms of finished product per month.
Premium Japanese hoshigaki persimmon costs €100-200 per kilogram today. That's comparable to the price of real marbled beef. In the US, a box of 10 pieces of premium hoshigaki can sell for up to $80.
But it's not just about price. Dried persimmon is one of those rare cases where the premium and the affordable version share exactly the same origin and exactly the same technology. It's just that the accessible version is produced at scale in Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey. The drying traditions there also go back centuries.
Quality whole dried persimmon from Central Asia is the same tradition, the same technique — just at an affordable price.
The 2025 harvest: what we received
This year, we brought in the final batch of the season. 2025-harvest persimmon, gathered and dried using the same thousand-year-old technique described in the imperial code of 927 CE.
This is the final delivery of the season. The next batch won't arrive until December 2026. Every fruit carries the natural “frost” of crystallized sugar, with a moisture content of 15-30% (matching the traditional standard).
Dried persimmon isn't just a dried fruit. It's 2000 years of history packed into a single fruit. From an ancient Chinese emperor's tribute to Sen no Rikyu's Japanese tea ceremony in the 16th century. Its production method hasn't changed for 1100 years. The premium Japanese version costs the same as marbled beef. But the tradition itself is available to everyone. Definitely give it a try!