Blue Diamond Almonds: Toasted Coconut

Nuts! A good source of protein.

After work yesterday, I ran a few errands hitting Wal-Mart and then Target.

While at Target (which was just a window shopping "I wonder if they have this thing I'm looking for since Wal-Mart didn't have it" kind of thing), I perused the snack aisle thinking even though I was tired, I'd come home, watch some Hulu and nosh on something while finally seeing the Arrow pilot.

Not bad. I was quite pleased.

Also being behind on my updates, I thought I might find something to write about here. As luck would have it, something caught my eye.

Behold! Toasted coconut almonds!

Now, I love me some nuts just as much as the next girl - (go ahead... make the joke... I set it up that way on purpose...) - but coconut?

I love coconut. While looking at the can, I debated on picking it up and not another flavor that I know I would love (like the wasabi/soy sauce... AWWW YEAH!), but I figured Hey... why not? 

I just couldn't wrap my head around how they could incorporate coconut flavor with almonds. The sweet with the salty has already been established as a success, but this was just something I couldn't imagine correctly.

Maybe it also had to do with the fact that I was really tired leaving my creative, imaginative quotient to almost nil.

So here I go today cracking open the little canister of nuts hoping for the best.

Their flavor is odd. You can definitely taste the coconut though it's not overpowering which is a good thing. It's subtle though obviously there and quite tasty.

Scanning over the nutritional facts, I see a lot of words that I would never use in regular conversation (whether talking to someone else or just myself), so I won't even bother telling you if this is good for you or not. You can judge for yourself. (Just remember - snack in moderation.)

But the thing that I think is funny (or at least made me mentally chuckle a bit), is at the end of the ingredients, it specifically says in CAPS and italics (so you know they mean it)...

PEANUT FREE. MAY CONTAIN OTHER TREE NUTS.

Okay, so when I grab a container of almonds, I don't even think "I hope there are some peanuts in here" and then after reading the fine print getting all kinds of bummed, then flip a table on a baby seal in the middle of the street and yell, "I want my peanutty almonds. I want my money back."

You know what I mean.

And what's this "other tree nuts" crap? When I think of tree nuts, I think of a movie where I saw a whole mess of monkeys in a tree... and you know how sharing they are of their privates.

But really. Is this a problem? Can nut companies not keep their nuts separate? I mean, I've eaten fast food before and found a stray French fry at the bottom of my onion rings, but that's a little different. Unless Blue Diamond is branching out or dealing with other nuts, why would their be other nuts with my almonds?

And right here on the side. It says "From the Almond People". Why would you call yourselves "the Almond People" if you're going to possibly have other nuts in your product?

WAY too many nut jokes.

Would I ever try this again?  While tasty in that weird kind of way, I have to admit that this flavor is not my favorite. If at a party, and they were in a dish of a table of snacks, I might eat a few, but I don't think I'll be getting them again on my own any time soon.

Blue Diamond Growers
Sacramento, CA 95812
USA

http://bluediamond.com/