Better Brittle
Better Brittle is a West African style peanut brittle that resembles the peanut brittle that many baby boomers recall from our childhood only without the rock-hard corn syrup that has been known to crack a tooth now and then. Made with three simple natural ingredients – freshly roasted peanuts from Virginia and North Carolina, fair-trade organic evaporated cane juice, and sea salt, Better Brittle is really better than traditional brittle. Read more 
Walnuts by Old Dog Ranch
The nutcracker sits under the holiday tree, a guardian of childhood stories. Feed him walnuts and he will crack open a tale…. ~Vera Nazarian
A big bowl of walnuts resting on a coffee table draws people together to engage in conversation while enjoying the thrill of cracking open a shell in search of the rich nutmeat inside. When I was a child, we would kneel around the table and struggle to apply enough force to break open the shell but not so much as to smash the nutmeat. Those of us who succeeded were rewarded with a large walnut half while those who used brute force were left with nutmeat crumbs – still tasty but more difficult to separate from the unwanted parts: the smashed shell and dry nut skin. Walnuts have a way of bringing people together and imparting lifelong lessons. Read more
Move Over Nutella, Make Room for Barefoot and Chocolate!
Fifty years ago, an Italian company (Ferrero) introduced Nutella, the brand name of a hazelnut chocolate spread whose two main ingredients are sugar and palm oil. For decades, there were few choices in the chocolate nut butter market until Barefoot and Chocolate came along in 2013 and created a Hazelnut Chocolate Spread that still relies on sugar (albeit, organic and fair-trade certified) but uses a heavier hand when it comes to hazelnuts and cocoa, the two main flavor ingredients that give Barefoot and Chocolate’s Hazelnut Chocolate Spread its rich, satisfying taste. Read more
Schermer Pecans
Some of the best tasting pecans in the world are grown in the south central orchards of North America where the hot and humid climate allows pecan trees to grow and bear the rich, buttery nut meats year after year. At Schermer Pecans in Glennville, Georgia (60 miles west of Savannah), the pecans have been grown and harvested by five generations of the Schermer and Wetherbee families since 1946.
Schermer Pecans are what some people would call a fully vertically integrated company: they plant, tend, harvest, shell, package, and distribute their own pecan products, which allows the customer to receive a fresh, high quality product directly from a Georgian orchard. Read more
Napa Cakes Panforte
The original power bar dates back to the Romans when the Italians combined fruits and nuts to make a moist, dense round cake called Panforte which literally means “strong cake” owing to the slightly spicy flavor. Some people would call Panforte a fruitcake but with the negative connotation that fruitcake conjures up – especially among young people – classifying this Italian creation with the often ridiculed candied fruit concoction does not do this cake justice. A slice of Panforte is truly heavenly owing to the concentration of dried fruit, nuts, honey, and spices. Read more
Bobbysue’s Nuts
Bobbysue Kobren has been making her family’s fantastic, generations-old recipe for spiced nuts – crunchy almonds, cashews, and pecans coated with a delicate meringue, and lightly roasted with a bit of sugar, and a special blend of spices – for years but waited until 2008 to follow her entrepreneurial spirit by opening Bobbysue’s Nuts in Chappaqua, New York. Savory, slightly sweet (but not too sweet), Bobbysue’s Nuts are addicting: it’s impossible to open a jar and eat just a few nuts because one taste of these scrumptious nuts leaves you wanting more…and more….and more. Read more
Big Spoon Roasters
Big Spoon Roasters makes ten handcrafted nut butters from scratch in Durham, North Carolina. Each nut butter starts with freshly harvested nuts (peanuts, pecans, almonds, cashews, or brazil nuts) that are roasted, ground, and then blended with wildflower honey which enhances the flavor and serves as a natural preservative – eliminating the need to refrigerate the butters. A touch of sea salt, stone ground chocolate, organic cocoa nibs, organic coconut oil, cardamom, clove, ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, black pepper, or crystallized ginger are also added, depending on the variety. Read more
Single Serve Nuttzo Packets
For quite some time, fans of Nuttzo have been waiting for the company to start selling single serve packets of their super delicious and incredibly nutritious nut and seed spread. Made of seven organic nuts and roasted seeds with a touch of sea salt, the Original, Peanut Free, and the Dark Chocolate Nuttzo have only been available in 16 ounce jars, which are great for home use but impractical for travel or as a to-go snack. So, when the company recently announced the roll out of single serve packets, Nuttzo fans (or Nuttzo fanatics as we are referred to) rejoiced.
Yumnuts
Take the son of a cashew broker and a self-described life-long cashew nut, add two guys who used to work for a big granola company (two words: the first name is another word for “grizzly” and the other means “emperor’s clothes”), and add a brand management guy – all of whom are athletes – and what do you have? Four guys who realized the market was in dire need of a lightly seasoned, dry-roasted cashew that makes people say “yum” as in “wow, these are delicious, please give me the whole bag so I can devour them right now.” That’s exactly what I thought when I tasted Yumnuts Cashews, of which there are five varieties: Read more
Next Organics: Dark Chocolate Nuts
One month from today – February 25, 2014 – is National Chocolate Covered Nuts Day. If you’ve never heard of this holiday, you’re not alone….but I’m all for celebrating anything that involves chocolate. Unlike Valentine’s Day which emphasizes chocolate and roses, National Chocolate Covered Nuts Day celebrates two of earth’s most perfect foods: nuts and chocolate, providing the perfect excuse to devour a variety of wholesome nuts covered in rich dark chocolate. Read more
Paddock Post 