Doug's Nuts

Press Sample
Who doesn't love a good nut joke? Doug's Nuts call out to the snickering kid in all of us with their interesting directions for consuming their product: Place Doug's Nuts gently into warm, expectant palm. But jokes aside, there's nothing childish about snacking on nuts! In fact, it's downright healthy.

Doug's Nuts come from the small startup of Happy Nibbles, located in Eugene, Oregon. According to their website, many of the nuts used in the mix are local to that area. The mix contains almonds, peanuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, pumpkin seeds, and pecans, and they are flavored with vanilla, honey, and oatmeal stout. Most importantly, I want you to know that this sample was sent by Doug's Nuts for review.

Eating in small handfuls, I could mainly taste the peanuts and hazelnuts, but also the vanilla in the glaze. Still, the best way for me to tackle a product like this is to go through each nut, one by one, because that's how I usually eat mixed nuts.


The pumpkin seeds were green and wonderful. They had a slightly sweet, toasty flavor that went very well with the slight saltiness and subtle caramelized flavor of the glaze, and I loved the vanilla aroma on the finish. The seeds were mild with a lovely crunch – I could eat a ton of these.

On that note, the almonds were also one of the stand-out nuts in this mix. They were plump and had just the right crunch, and the mildly woodsy flavor was also excellently matched with the glaze. The slight saltiness from the sea salt was perfect!

Walnuts have an earthier, slightly bitter flavor that almost overpowered the subtle seasoning in this mix. Walnuts aren’t my favorite, but they were done well here.

In this mix, the cashews didn’t blow me away. They were good, but not outstanding like some of the other nuts. I suppose I was expecting them to be crunchier, and the glaze seemed to add less here.

The pecans were excellent – I really got a sense of the vanilla and oatmeal stout in the glaze, and the texture was lovely – nice and crunchy! Wow – can I make a pie out of these?

Full disclosure – I just don’t care for hazelnuts, but that’s how mixed nuts go, isn’t it? The glaze went well with the strong, earthy flavor, and my husband loved them. He’s the hazelnut lover in the house, so please take his word for them.

In this mix, the peanuts were very earthy and flavorful (but not bitter). They were extremely well-roasted, noticeably better than the average peanut! The seasoning was just a bit player for the peanuts, but I was okay with that because the nuts were toasty and wonderful.

Both my husband and myself really enjoyed this mix. He liked every nut and ate handfuls at a time, whereas I ate around the hazelnuts (and sometimes the walnuts), but that's just my personal tastes. The subtle flavor of the glaze was just lovely, rounding out a tasty, filling snack. If you try Doug's Nuts, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

A

Doug's Nuts

Vosges Bapchi's Caramel Toffee Bar

Technology never ceases to amaze me! Right now, I am writing this entry from cruising altitude on my way to Las Vegas. Thanks to Google, Delta's on-flight internet service is free this month. So, it seemed a good of a time as any to break my lazy blogger streak.

Vosges is not an indulgence I often allow myself to make. It's one of the more expensive chocolate brands available at stores in my area, but when I saw this new flavor, I couldn't resist. It was placed next to a mint flavor for the Holidays, but Caramel Toffee sounded better.


The bar was a little beaten up, but it had an amazingly complex scent and taste. It smelled of rich, browned butter toffee with a hint of something that reminds me of rum. The flavor was at first sweet cocoa, then the salt hit the tongue, and finally, it was nutty and full of rich, incredibly buttery toffee.

There were several textures at play - smooth, rich 45% cacao chocolate (just dark enough to offset the sweetness), crisp and chewy toffee, and meaty nuts. This is definitely the best bar I've tried all year. It reminded me of chocolate caramel corn, only much more refined. It was so hard to put this bar down, but after talking it up so much, I had to save some for my husband.

A+

Seattle Chocolates Panoramic Pecan

Although I've seen Seattle Chocolates in my area, when I was visiting Seattle and saw this truffle bar in the Space Needle gift shop, I was compelled to buy it. The package design was very cool, and I thought it would make a good souvenir...and I ended up eating it myself. To be fair, I shared it with 3 people, but I do feel a little guilty.

I never made the connection before, but many of the Seattle Chocolates truffle bars pay homage to famous locations in the Seattle area. Some good examples are the Pike Place Espresso Bar and the Whidbey Wildberry Truffle Bar, but I haven't tried either. Panoramic Pecan promised raisins and praline pecans in dark chocolate truffle.


Because it's a truffle bar, the chocolate had a matte finish and a very soft snap. It smelled of raisins and chocolate (like Raisinettes, if you've had them). The chocolate was sweet for being dark, but it was very smooth and silky with a mildly bitter finish. I liked the texture and the flavor very well.

Did you notice that I haven't mentioned any pecans or actual raisins yet? That's because in the first of 4 quarters of the bar, there was almost nothing but chocolate. My piece had one tiny candied pecan piece, and while it was crunchy and had a nice caramelized flavor, I was pretty disappointed with the distribution.

Luckily, one of my guinea pigs let me have half of another piece later, and the experience was quite different! The plentiful nuts added a firm, sweet crunch and the raisins were tender and flavorful. It reminded me of a high quality trail mix. If only the whole bar had been like that....

B+

Seattle Chocolates website