Our Story

The Date I Grew Up With

Some foods are more than food.

They are part of home. Part of childhood. Part of the things you reach for without even thinking about it.

For me, that was dates.

I grew up eating them, and I have never really stopped. I still eat dates every day. I love them in a way that is probably a little unreasonable.

Put chocolate, candy, or a bowl of dates in front of me, and I will choose the dates. Every time, and every day. 

Not because they are supposed to be “healthy.” Because I genuinely love them.

They are naturally sweet, deeply satisfying, and full of flavor. They satisfy the craving for something sweet while being a naturally occurring fruit rather than another heavily processed candy or dessert.

But when I moved to America, I ran into a problem. I could not find the dates I grew up loving.

Looking for the Right Date

In America, Medjool dates seemed to be everywhere.

And while Medjool is a great date, it was never the date I grew up eating, and it was never my favorite.

I wanted Deglet Noor. I wanted the variety I knew from home, the one I had eaten for years and the one I naturally reached for every day.

So I started looking. I checked grocery stores. I looked in specialty markets. I searched for Deglet Noor whenever I came across a store that might carry them.

Sometimes I found them. But finding the quality I was looking for was another story.

Often, getting good Deglet Noor meant driving 20, 30, sometimes 40 minutes to a specialty store, hoping they had them in stock. And even then, the dates were often not what I remembered.

For someone who loves dates as much as I do, that became incredibly frustrating.

Eventually, I stopped asking, “Where can I find the dates I grew up with?”

And started asking, “Why don’t I bring them here?”

That Is Why LOARANA Exists

LOARANA was born from that simple idea. To bring exceptional Deglet Noor dates to America, and to make the kind of dates I grew up loving easier to find.

We are not interested in treating dates like just another commodity sitting on a supermarket shelf.

We care about the variety, the quality, the harvest, the way the fruit is handled, and most importantly, how it tastes when it reaches your table.

Because I know what a great Deglet Noor tastes like. I grew up with it. And when I could not find it here, I decided to do something about it.

Why Deglet Noor

Deglet Noor has a character of its own.

It is naturally elegant. Golden in color, delicately sweet, and wonderfully versatile.

It is the kind of date you can simply pick up and eat, but it is just as at home beside breakfast, in a snack, in a recipe, or alongside coffee or tea.

For me, though, it is much simpler than that. It is the date I grew up with. The date I still reach for every day. And the date I kept looking for after coming to America.

Why Libya

Our dates come from Libya. One country, one variety, one harvest.

Libya has grown Deglet Noor for generations. Dates there are not a specialty item. They are an everyday food, grown, harvested, shared and eaten as part of ordinary life.

That is the tradition we went back to. Every box of LOARANA is single origin Libyan Deglet Noor, traceable by batch, never a blended lot pulled from several countries.

We wanted LOARANA to be rooted in that heritage while bringing it to a modern American customer who may have never tasted Deglet Noor the way we know it.

From Harvest to Your Table

Great dates begin long before they reach a package. They begin with the fruit itself, the harvest, and the care taken after it leaves the palm.

Our goal is simple: choose good fruit, handle it carefully, preserve what makes it special, and get it to you in a way that respects the product.

We work to preserve the qualities we love about Deglet Noor, its natural sweetness, beautiful color, and satisfying texture, so that when you open a box of LOARANA, the experience starts with the date itself.

More Than a Box of Dates

We created LOARANA because one of our favorite foods was surprisingly difficult to find.

But we also believe there are many people in America looking for something better, whether they grew up eating Deglet Noor, already know and love dates, or are simply ready to discover a different kind of date.

Maybe LOARANA will become part of your breakfast. Maybe it will become the afternoon snack you keep reaching for. Maybe you will put a box on the table and watch everyone finish it faster than expected.

Or maybe, like me, you will simply start eating them every day.

That is what happened to me. And that is why LOARANA exists.

From My Home to Yours

What started as a personal frustration became a business built around something I have loved since childhood.

I did not create LOARANA because I needed another product to sell. I created it because I missed something.

I knew what I wanted. I could not find it. So I decided to bring it here.

Thank you for being part of the journey.

Welcome to LOARANA. Taste the date I grew up with.