Raw Date Syrup

There are lots of recipes online for sweet things without refined sugar, but most still involve maple syrup or brown rice syrup or agave nectar, and those syrups still count as sugar since they have been stripped of their natural fiber.  I love medjool dates and use them to sweeten things like oatmeal and homemade granola bars, but today was the first time I heard of making syrup from them.  It involves blending up the whole date, so all the fiber is still in there.  I found this recipe on OhLadyCakes.  I'd like to come up with some variations on this to make flavored vegan milks for my coffee, since I currently use sweetened vanilla almond milk. 

Ingredients
8-9 medjool dates
1 1/4 cups filtered water, plus more for soaking dates
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 vanilla bean, scraped

Directions
1. Place the dates in a small bowl; cover with warm water and let sit for 30 minutes.

2. Once the dates have soaked, drain the water then add the dates, filtered water, and lemon juice (and scrape one half of a vanilla bean if so desired) to the container of a high speed blender, such as a Vitamix. Blend for 45-60 seconds, or until smooth.
3. Transfer to an air tight container and store in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

[Edited 8/29/2014: I used about 2 tbs of this date syrup in my coffee this morning with unsweetened plain almond milk.  It was good -- it didn't even taste weird!  I expected this to be something I could get used to, not something that takes no getting used to.  I am genuinely shocked and pleased.]