The Water-Infused Brand of Fruit I’m Obsessed With

Dried fruit is an actual obsession of mine. I’m one of those annoying people who eats fruit for dessert. It’s not that I don’t love chocolate or cake — I do, very much so — but I try to keep the added sugar low these days, and dried fruit is my raging sweet tooth’s saving grace.

I’m also extraordinarily picky, especially with food, and most dried fruit has added sugar and/or the texture of a tire. This puts me in a predicament. Is it actually possible to have luscious, close-my-eyes-it’s-so-good, nothing-added-to-it dried fruit? Thanks to an unsuspecting brand of water-infused dried fruit called Fruit Bliss, the answer is a resounding yes!

Fruit Bliss makes what I had been searching for all along. It’s easily the most concentratedly flavored and succulent dried fruit I’ve ever tasted. Its moisture is due to an innovative technique of infusing water into the fruits after they’ve been dried.

Preserving and prolonging seasonal fruit is practical, clever, and delicious and it’s a method of preservation that’s been around for centuries. Originally, fruit was dried in the sun, with nothing added to it, and often in small batches. Nowadays, with high production output meeting the demands for dried fruit around the world, drying it in the sun in small batches seems like a bucolic fantasy. Most companies use large-batch dehydrators or specialized dryers, sometimes adding the preservative sulfur dioxide to extend shelf life, which is what gives most dried fruit its bright color (you’ve seen neon dried apricots, I’m sure).

Fruit Bliss doesn’t add any preservatives, which shortens their shelf life, but I suspect eating them before they spoil won’t be a problem for most, because they’re that good. Because of the lack of preservatives, they’re also much darker in color than what you’re used to seeing. Their fruits are dried in the sun, then steamed with water to infuse them with plump, next-level moisture. They’re so juicy, chewing is optional. I can now bask in natural dessert heaven without sacrificing the way I feel.

Fruit Bliss offers a selection of Tunisian deglet dates, Turkish figs & apricots, and French Andean plums. Companies like Amphora, who use a similar production process as Fruit Bliss, offer a slightly larger selection of dates, apricots, cherries, mulberries, mangoes, and figs. They’re available at most Whole Foods, Home Goods, and other stores across the country. Their distribution is listed on each of their respective sites.

These are delicious enough to eat solo, of course, but they’re great in stews, salads, and with other fruits. I almost always eat them with nut butters. My favorite are the apricots, with figs coming in at a close second. I start my day with a banana spread with a hefty amount of almond butter and end my day with an apple spread with cashew butter and a fig. These are my desserts now, and now that I’ve seen the water-infused side of things, I’ll never go back to regular dried fruit again.