Wednesday, August 20, 2008
New product Wednesday, at Dallas-area stores: Emerald Cocoa Roast Almonds
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Emerald Nuts is a marketing wunderkind, making a name for itself in just four years with its offbeat ads, including one that starred the now-deceased Robert Goulet trashing an office and crawling on the ceiling.
Emerald's mission is to make snacking on nuts easier -- to quote the Web site, it "delivers choice, convenience, and excitement". Wow, excitement just from snacking on nuts? Anyway, the line has two new intriguing flavors: Sea Salt and Pepper Cashews and Cocoa Roast Almonds, slightly more intriguing because it's 1. sweet-ish and 2. novel.
The concept of an almond with a light cocoa-powder coating is great: You get the nut and a touch of chocolate, but not as intense as chocolate-covered almonds, which are awesome but a bit much. However, the coating on these is funky -- only nominally chocolatey, and seemingly designed for everything except taste. Namely:
- Calories. Cocoa Roast Almonds are advertised as having no more calories than roasted almonds (150 calories per 1.5-ounce serving), and the way they do that is with the addition of not one but two artificial sweeteners: acesulfame potassium, also known as "Ace K," and sucralose. You can taste it pretty quickly: There's a weird tingly quality on your tongue and a metallic aftertaste that overshadows the cocoa flavor. And the one-two punch of all that artificial sweetener creates a slight jittery buzz.
- Mobility. Diamond bakes the coating onto the almond, with the result being that it leaves no residue on your fingers. Or, to quote their fact sheet, "Baked-in flavor = no mess!" You're on the GO, see, and you can't be tied down with rinsing your hands and towels and such. On a related note, the plastic canister, a deplorable Grade-7 recyclable, is advertised as being able to fit into your car cup-holder.
Emerald is an offshoot of Diamond Foods, which used to be a grower cooperative, mostly walnuts, but has become a food/marketing company. (As opposed to Blue Diamond, which was founded in 1910 and remains an almond-centric grower cooperative which also makes products such as those nut thins.)
Other fun facts from Emerald: These nuts provide "Value-added seasoning for the consumer who is tired of plain old cashews." And the "top 3 consumer motive for snacking is 'wanted something sweet'". And now they've got it. Sortof.
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Comments
Donna Chen Verified
When I bought my car last year, the salesperson kept emphasizing how it had 9 cupholders. And I wondered why in the world I would ever require that many beverages when the car only seats 5. But now I realize that all of our food/drink intake will come in the cupholder friendly forms, and that I can consume a 3-course meal just using the 5 cupholders within my reach. YAY!
1 year, 2 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Teresa Gubbins Staff
hilarious, donna chen. what kind of car did you buy? not to be snoopy. was it a hummer? it was a hummer, wasn't it.
1 year, 2 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Donna Chen Verified
No, the Hummer had 1 less cupholder (but 2 additional storage areas for personal missiles), thus it lost out to my CUV, AKA, glorified minivan.
1 year, 2 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Margie Hubbard Verified
Somehow I don't see myself driving home sucking down chocolate-y almonds.
1 year, 2 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Mike Orren Staff
TGub brought us some samples: I liked the first one, but but after a few, the powdered sweetness was cloying.
1 year, 2 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Collin Gouldin Verified
i bet they would be good with some kind of cereal
1 year, 2 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jeremy Dunck Staff
I thought they tasted like Cocoa Puffs.
The almond-ness was totally dominated by "chocolate".
I'll take my almonds raw, thanks.
1 year, 2 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Mike Orren Staff
And a waste of calories when Minnie brought cookies for the news staff meeting.
1 year, 2 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Billusa99 Anonymous
I love almonds, TG, so thanks for the heads up on avoiding these. Besides, the noise from chewing them would very likely annoy the rest of the people on the plane, too....
1 year, 2 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
frankstongal Anonymous
You are my favorite food nerd.
1 year, 2 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
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