Khubani (Dried Apricots): Orange vs Brown and Which Is Better

If you’ve wondered why your dried apricots are dark brown, nothing has gone wrong. Brown is the natural colour of a sun-dried apricot, and bright orange ones have been treated with sulphur to hold their colour. Neither is fake. This guide shows how to choose between them, how Hunza khubani is dried, how to store and soak it, and who should go easy on it.

Why are my dried apricots dark brown?

An apricot contains enzymes that brown the flesh when it meets air, the same thing that happens to a cut apple. Drying takes days, so a plain sun-dried apricot slowly turns tan, then brown, and in time nearly the colour of dark gur, and along the way it gets chewier, loses some of its sourness and starts to taste more like toffee than fresh fruit, which is exactly what people in the northern valleys have always expected khubani to be.

The bright orange ones are dipped in, or exposed to, sulphur dioxide before drying. The sulphur blocks browning, keeps the fruit softer and protects it from moulds, which is why these apricots look almost as bright as the day they were picked even after months in a warehouse and a long trip in a shipping container. Simple. On a packed label you’ll see “sulphur dioxide”, “sulphites” or “E220”.

Your orange apricots going darker at home is normal too. Sulphur slowly fades, especially in heat, so an old packet drifts toward brown over the months, and that’s fine: it’s still safe to eat as long as it smells sweet, bends without snapping and shows no fuzzy mould anywhere on the skin or around the stem end.

Orange vs brown khubani: which is better?

Nutritionally? Close. Sulphuring may keep a little more of the vitamin A precursor (beta-carotene), which is why the orange ones are more orange. Both are good sources of fibre and potassium, so the honest answer is to buy by taste, by what you’re cooking and by who’s eating them, choosing brown for anyone with asthma or a known sulphite problem and orange for anyone who simply wants a soft, sweet snack.

The Hunza apricot tradition

In Hunza and the rest of Gilgit-Baltistan, apricots ripen in early summer, roughly June into July, and whole families spread them on flat rooftops and rocks to dry in the thin mountain air and strong sun. Many are dried whole, stone and all. The kernels from sweet varieties are pressed for oil, used for cooking and on skin and hair in cold, dry winters. Halman is one of the region’s best-known varieties, and Ladakh and Kashmir keep a very similar drying tradition on the Indian side of the mountains.

How to pick good dried apricots

1. Press one. Orange apricots should be soft and bendy. Brown ones are firmer, but they shouldn’t be rock-hard or crack.
2. Check for mould and bugs. Check the stem end. Fuzzy spots, webbing or tiny holes mean skip.
3. Smell. Fruity and sweet is right. A sharp, sour or winey smell means fermentation.
4. Read the label. “Sulphur dioxide” or “E220” means sulphured. “Unsulphured” or “organic” usually means not.
5. Watch for syrup gloss. Apricots should not look wet or candied unless the pack says so. Some imported “soft” apricots are sugar-infused; the label will list sugar.
6. Brown doesn’t mean stale. Judge brown khubani by smell and flexibility, not colour.

How to store dried apricots

• Jar, cool cupboard: fine for a couple of months in winter.
• Fridge: in summer, a sealed jar in the fridge keeps them soft and bug-free for around six months. Bring to room temperature before eating for best taste.
• Freezer: up to a year in a tight zip bag.
• Soften hard ones: pour just-boiled water over them, cover, and leave 15 to 20 minutes. Or soak overnight in cold water in the fridge.

For storing apricots alongside walnuts, almonds and chilgoza, see how to store dry fruits and nuts.

Are dried apricots as healthy as fresh?

Gram for gram, dried apricots have more of everything, because the water is gone: more fibre, potassium, iron and sugar. One fresh apricot is about 35 g and 17 kcal, while one dried half is about 7 g with roughly the same calories, so five dried halves carry the sugar of five whole fresh apricots in two quick bites. Easy to overdo.

What’s real: they’re one of the better dried fruits for fibre and potassium, they’re a good plant source of beta-carotene, and they make a far better sweet bite than a biscuit, a toffee or a spoon of mithai with your chai. What’s hype: dried apricots “fixing” anaemia. The iron is the plant type, which the body absorbs less well; pairing with vitamin C (a squeeze of lemon, a few guava slices) helps a little, but low iron needs a proper test and doctor’s advice.

Dried apricots vs prunes for constipation

Prunes win. They contain sorbitol, a natural sugar alcohol that pulls water into the gut. Apricots help mainly through fibre. A few soaked apricots in a fibre-rich day with water can nudge things along; for more see our constipation home remedies guide.

Three simple ways to eat khubani

Apricot and yoghurt breakfast. Chop 4 soaked apricots into 150 g plain yoghurt with a tbsp of rolled oats and 4 chopped almonds. Quick. Filling.

Apricot and chickpea salad. Toss 1 cup boiled chickpeas, 5 chopped apricots, half a sliced onion, a handful of mint, lemon juice, salt and chaat masala. The sweet-sour mix works like tamarind chutney without the sugar.

Good combos: apricots with nuts, yoghurt or chickpeas slow the sugar hit. Apricot “juice” from soaking water is fine to drink, but whole fruit gives you the fibre, so eat the fruit too.

Apricot for skin and hair: what’s gentle and what’s not

Apricot kernel oil from sweet kernels is a light, well-tolerated cosmetic oil. A few drops warmed in your palms can go on dry hair ends or rough elbows. Leave it on overnight or for an hour before washing, two or three times a week in winter.

Apricot “scrubs” made from crushed shells are a different story, because the jagged bits of shell can leave tiny scratches in the skin and irritate it, especially if you rub hard or use them every day as many people do. Skip it on acne. If you like a scrub, use it lightly and rarely, never on broken skin. Always patch-test any new oil or pack on the inner arm for 24 hours first, stop if it stings, itches or reddens, and keep it off broken skin.

Myths and surprising facts

Myth: brown apricots are old or spoiled

Truth: brown is the natural colour of unsulphured drying, and people believe the myth mainly because years of neatly packed imported fruit in supermarkets and gift boxes have taught us that a proper dried apricot should be glowing orange.

Myth: apricot kernels are a healthy “vitamin B17”

Truth: “B17” isn’t a vitamin. Bitter apricot kernels contain amygdalin, which the body can turn into cyanide. Our apricot kernel safety guide explains the risk and which kernels are the problem.

Did you know?

• Turkey grows most of the world’s dried apricots, around the city of Malatya.
• Apricots and almonds are close cousins in the same plant family, which is why a sweet apricot kernel tastes almond-like.

Dried apricot questions, answered

Find more buying guides in Fruits and Vegetables.