Jujube, sometimes jujuba, known by the scientific name Ziziphus jujuba and also called red date, Chinese date, and Chinese jujube, is a species in the genus Ziziphus in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae.
It is a small deciduous tree or shrub reaching a height of 5–12 metres, usually with thorny branches. The leaves are shiny-green, ovate-acute, 2–7 centimetres long and 1–3 cm wide, with three conspicuous veins at the base, and a finely toothed margin. The flowers are small, 5 millimetres wide, with five inconspicuous yellowish-green petals.
The fruit is an edible oval drupe 1.5–3 cm deep; when immature it is smooth-green, with the consistency and taste of an apple with lower acidity, maturing brown to purplish-black, and eventually wrinkled, looking like a small date. There is a single hard kernel, similar to an olive pit, containing two seeds.
The freshly harvested, as well as the candied dried fruit, are often eaten as a snack, or with coffee. Smoked jujubes are consumed in Vietnam and are referred to as black jujubes. A drink can be made by crushing the pulp in water. Both China and Korea produce a sweetened tea syrup containing jujube fruit in glass jars, and canned jujube tea or jujube tea in the form of teabags. To a lesser extent, jujube fruit is made into juice and jujube vinegar (called 枣 醋 or 红枣 醋 in Chinese). They are used for making pickles (কুলের আচার) in west Bengal and Bangladesh. In Assam it is known as "Bogori" and is famous for Bogori aachar (বগৰি আচাৰ). In China, a wine made from jujube fruit is called hong zao jiu (红枣酒).
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