Why Iranian dates don't all taste the same
Ask a dates wholesaler in Malaysia to compare Mazafati against Zahedi and you're really comparing two different processing paths, not just two farms. Iran grows several distinct varieties, and the taste/texture gap between them is bigger than the gap between most other countries' single-variety exports.
Mazafati — wet, dark, short shelf life
Mazafati is harvested and sold soft, almost black, with a moisture level high enough that it's usually kept refrigerated rather than shelf-stored. The taste is closer to fresh fruit than to a dried snack — less caramelised sweetness, more of a mild, slightly tannic note. It doesn't travel as well as drier varieties and needs a cold chain most of the way to Malaysia.
Piarom — semi-dry, long, distinctly chewy
Piarom looks almost nothing like Mazafati: long, slender, dark brown with a wrinkled skin. It's dried further than Mazafati but still well short of fully hard, giving it a chewy, slightly toffee-like bite. Because it's semi-dry, it holds up to shipping and storage noticeably better.
Zahedi — dry, firm, mild
Zahedi is the driest of the common Iranian exports — pale, firm, and much less sweet than Mazafati or Piarom. It's the variety most often used in cooking rather than eaten on its own, since the firmer flesh holds its shape when chopped into baked goods or savoury dishes.
Rabbi — in between, less common outside Iran
Rabbi sits closer to Mazafati in moisture but with a slightly firmer skin, and it's harder to find outside specialist Iranian date suppliers than the other three.
What this means when you're buying
If a listing just says "Iranian dates" with no variety named, you can't tell from that alone whether you're getting a soft, cold-chain product or a dry, shelf-stable one — and the two aren't interchangeable in a kitchen or a shop display. Ask for the variety name specifically. For how these grades map onto price, grading and pricing in Malaysia generally follows the same moisture logic, and it's worth comparing against how Medjool is priced to see where Iranian varieties sit by comparison. A different origin worth knowing for contrast is the Sayer variety, which sits closer to Zahedi on the dry end.
The short version
"Iranian dates" isn't one taste and texture — it's at least four, and the difference comes down to how much moisture was left in after harvest.