Recipe: Calming Cinnamon Apricot Milk for One

Hi! I'm Apricot!

"I'm from the same family as the peach and kind of look like one, but I'm smaller with more velvety than fuzzy skin. I'm also a little less sweet and more tart, but when you cook apricots, that's where we shine!"

History & Etymology

• The most common apricot cultivar was thought to have originated in ancient Armenia, where its scientific name, Prunus armeniaca, came from. However, genetic studies have found it was first domesticated in Central Asia and China. It then spread to South Asia, West Asia (including Armenia), Europe, North Africa, and Japan.  
• Turkey is the largest producer of apricots worldwide, at over 850,000 tons per year. The United States, in comparison, produces a little over 40,000 tons, with almost 75 percent grown in California.
• Apricots are the national fruit of Armenia, grown primarily in the Ararat plain, which is shared with Turkey. 
• US astronauts ate dried apricots on the Apollo 15 and 17 moon missions.
• The word "apricot" comes from the mid-16th century French "abricot," from the Spanish "albaricoque," from the Spanish Arabic "al + barquq" ("the plums").

Anatomy

• Apricot trees (Prunus armeniaca) are from the Rosaceae family, including roses, apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, raspberries, and strawberries.
• The trees grow from 26 to 39 feet tall. The fruit is orange and is one-half to one inch in diameter. Its appearance resembles a small peach, and its skin may be smooth or velvety.
• The fruit of the apricot tree is a drupe or stone fruit, like almonds, cherries, nectarines, olives, and peaches. A drupe has an outer fleshy part with a thin skin and a stone (also called pip or shell) in the center surrounding the seed or kernel. 
• A positive consequence of the hard stones in apricots is to protect people from ingesting the toxic kernel inside.

How to Pick, Buy, & Eat

• Depending on the variety, apricots are picked when fully ripe, between June and August. After they are harvested, they can be stored in a cool place for one to three weeks. 
• Commercially processed apricots are mostly canned, dried, frozen, or made into jams, jellies, and preserves. 
• Store ripe apricots in your refrigerator's crisper bin for one to two days. To ripen firm apricots, place them in a closed paper bag at room temperature.
• Fresh apricots can be eaten as a snack or cooked and made into jams and preserves. Fresh apricots and preserves are added to cookies, pies, cakes, and other desserts.
• Dried apricots retain many nutrients and are a sweet and tasty snack.

Nutrition

• Raw, fresh apricots are a moderate source of vitamin A, beta-carotene, and vitamin C. 
• Vitamin A helps you see in the dark and makes your skin healthy. The deeper the color, the more beta-carotene apricots have and the better they are for you. Vitamin C helps boost the immune system.
• Due to the concentration of nutrients, dried apricots are rich sources of vitamins A and C and potassium. However, dried apricots contain more than five times more sugar than fresh apricots.