Premium Dried Figs (Anjeer)

Whole sun-dried anjeer from Anantnag, graded by diameter and sold by weight in a sealed 500 g pack.

Anjeer is sold two ways in India. Pressed figs are packed into blocks or discs, which is cheap to ship and hard to inspect. Whole figs are dried individually and keep their shape, their stem and their pale bloom. Ours are whole only.

Grade comes down to diameter and to how far the drying was taken. A larger fig has had more sun and more time on the tree, and it tears open soft at the centre. An over-dried fig is leathery at the edge and pale through, which is a fault, not a style.

Nothing added: no sugar, no preservative, no sulphur. A sulphur-bleached fig comes out uniformly light; a sun-dried one is uneven, tends to amber, and develops a natural white bloom of fruit sugar on the skin that is often mistaken for mould. Ours arrive uneven, and that is the point.

For eating whole, for soaking overnight, for milkshakes and for the cheese board.