The carbon foot print of Spanish Marconas bothered me a lil bit, living in the Mountain / Pacific time zones and not on the Iberian peninsula. So last week when I was shopping in Costco, I looked for local almond options. Diamond brand had some almonds selling there listing "corn" as an ingredient. What part of the almond is the "corn" part? Epic failure, Diamond brand. There was a Costco (Kirkland) brand of almonds that claimed to be Californian, but stated they were coated in malto dextrin... maltodextrin... ¿Por qué? And they were brown husked, just like the Diamond brand, so none of my dollars went to that supplier.
The Marconas have very simple ingredients: blanched marcona almonds, sunflower oil, sea salt. mmmmm. So I bought 4 more cans, Just In Case Costco decides to stop carrying them.
I should be chock-full-o-nuts for the next 2 or 3 months - or in my buddy Matt's words: "The guy's nuts, grab-em!" LOL!
Unfortunately, US almonds have to be blanched/pasteurized and cannot be sold raw. Which is a shame. I like my nuts roasted, but eating my nuts raw is healthier. Don't let anyone put sugar on your nuts. When you invite others to eat your nuts, you want to be confident you won't be poisoning them. I would hope your nuts have enough natural flavor to satisfy your guests on their own.
ReplyDeleteactually, only the almonds from the US (california) that need to be "pasturized". Cornicopia is currenty trying to fight the ruling.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cornucopia.org/Almonds/?gclid=CNDq7fCM6J8CFQTxDAodk1JqGg
However, it is near enough impossible to get raw almonds from elsewhere.
Joe: if you don't like the brown on the almond. Try blanching them. While it will no longer be raw. well, it's not raw anyway. Oh - and try and avoid nuts coated in oil - as they heat the nuts to a temp that is not good for the oil. I'm sure you've seen Zim's posting on some of that (oil/heat conserns).