Check Your Cashews

Ruh-roh...  Check your cashews!
Possible salmonella scare with TJ's Raw Cashew Pieces.


CNN TJ Cashew Recall Link

Day 359 - Handfuls of Happy Trekking

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!  I hope that your day has been memorable, joy filled, and all around HAPPY.  We have had a beautiful day here in Florida – the sun has been shining and the holiday spirit is all around.  J  It was over 80 degrees today, so we HIT THE BEACH. 

MERRRRRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

And MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR FAUXMAN!!

Do you wanna build a fauxman???

If there is one thing you need after a couple of hours at the beach, it is a SNACK.  So we were thankful that Paul from the Jacksonville Beach, FL store had gifted us that great TJ’s bag full of stuff, which included HANDFULS OF HAPPY TREKKING trail mix.  I put a bag of those into the beach bag before we hit the sand.

Bit blurry photo - my camera had sea salt/air on it by the time I took this :)

This big package contains ten SMALLER individual packages of trail mix.  Ingredients are almonds, cashews, pistachios, chocolate, cranberries, and cherries.

Cute sized little package of trail mix!

I would have to say that they are perfect beach snacks!  The little packs are sealed so no sand can get in, and each pack is a great size for one person (I only packed one, my bad, so David and I had to share that).  Actualllllly, it wasn’t just David and I who shared.  Beach birds have an UNCANNY skill to know when you have busted out something to eat!  The second I opened this bag of trail mix THIS fellow showed up to get a bit.

SNACKS???  DID SOMEONE SAY SNACKS????

I experimented with the bird a bit and it turns out that birds (this particular bird anyway) does not like chocolate or cranberries.  But he/she DIGS cashew bits!!!  Sadly, so does David, so the two of them had to fight it out for cashews. 

I would give this trail mix a 4.5.  It has a good mix of ingredients.  I personally would prefer more ALMONDS, but David and the bird really liked the cashews.  J

These would be good treats to put into lunch bags, beach bags, hiking packs, and the like.  If you are snow skiing these would be GREAT in your jacket pocket to eat while going up a lift.  I am not usually a fan of pre-packaged tiny treats, I always feel like you must be paying MORE for the convenience of buying stuff pre-sorted into tiny bags and that I should just make my own little snack bags.  But this sure was easy to just grab and go!!   And when I do the math, these are only .69 cents per little bag, which doesn’t seem outrageous at all to me.

Here is what David thought:  “I thought these were good.  I liked them.  They were a nice mix.  They were not very salty – maybe they could have been saltier for me.  But it was a nice balance between the sweetness of the fruit and chocolate and the nuts.  It felt substantial enough to allay some hunger, yet light enough to be just a casual snack.  I would give these a 3.75 (the nuts could be roastier and saltier).”

David had to share with the bird, but at least our Fauxman didn't want any trail mix.

Here is what the bird who ate cashews thought:  “Chirp chirp chirp.  Peep chirp.  Peep peep peep peep.  Chirp!  Peep chirp peep 4.”

Here is a link to Trader Joe’s article on this product:  TJ's article on Handfuls of Happy Trekking. 

Price - $6.99 (so .69 per pack of trail mix, the cost of a candy bar or cheaper and just as tasty, plus healthier!)

Rating (average of 2 humans and 1 bird) - 4

Day 280 - Whole Roasted Cashews

Overall, I do not think I have raved enough on this blog about Trader Joe’s nut and dried fruit aisle.  It is THE BOMB.  If you have a nut need, Trader Joe’s can (likely) solve it.  They have eveeeerything!  Mixes.  Raw.  Roasted.  Sliced.  Whole.  Etc, etc, etc.  You could spend an hour just staring at the dried fruits, trail mixes, and nuts.  They take up a WHOLE AISLE people!  Not a little squished section between cake mixes and bags of sugar like in other grocery stores.  Trader Joe’s does this department right.

That being said, I have never been a cashew fan.  To me, cashews have always tasted OILY.  And mealy.  And, well, just yucky.  I have never met a cashew I really liked.  Which is why I never eat them.  So when we got this bag I figured this would be a DAVID ONLY review.  I didn’t want to bias it with my “cashew hating self”. 

Then I tried one.

And for the first time I can remember in my life I LIKED A CASHEW!  So I tried another.  And I liked it.  Repeat repeat repeat until I had eaten lots of cashews!

Ahhh the NUT AISLE at Trader Joe's...  Heaven for nut and dried fruit lovers

Originally these were David’s treat, so he decided he wanted to ROAST THEM more than they already were.  He said they were "lightly roasted" and he wanted MORE.  I sort of think it is because he likes the act of ROASTING them.  It is sort of “zen” to him I think.  He is a very loving roaster.  I think his gentle care and roasting of these is what made them taste so good to me.  He also roasts slivered almonds (which may get reviewed before the year is out) and enjoys roasting granola, too.  I guess, at heart, he is a roaster.  I am glad he roasted these, because if he hadn’t I doubt I would have enjoyed them.

Here are some of the cashews after being lovingly roasted by David.  Don't they look happy and well cared for?

Here is what David said about these cashews:  “These are very good.  Nice.  I am not sure what the comparative pricing is but this is a big bag so it has a “big price tag”.  (Editor’s note – see pricing info below.)  The cashews are very nice.  I personally prefer them a bit more roasted and a little bit more salty than they have here right from the bag.  So I roasted them a bit myself and they are fabulous and delicious!  I added salt when I roasted them but I do not think it “took”.  I think when they roast them, to make the salt adhere they spray on a salt and water solution so the water gets ABSORBED and the salt crystals stick.”

But after another taste (we HAD to, for the sake of this blog…) we both agreed that David’s salt to nut mixture was near ‘bout perfect.

Look - he was caressing them even before he put them in the cart!  He loves cashews.

The bag claims these are WHOLE CASHEWS and that is absolutely 100% correct.  Other cans/jars/bags of cashews sometime say “whole cashews” but contain broken bits.  These were big, meaty, whole cashews.  High quality.

As far as pricing goes, I think they are really well priced.  I have not done enough comparison shopping in brick and mortar stores to make that claim, but let’s look around a bit online, shall we?

·         A site called Piping Rock.com, whose tag line is, “Always the Best for Less”, is apparently lying,       because they have a 1 lb bag for $9.49 (plus shipping)

·         A site called Nuts.com (I mean, THEY have to have good prices, right?  With a name like that?)         is charging $10.99/lb

·         And on “The Peanut Shop” (which categories cashews as “other nuts”) they price them at $27.99         for an 18 oz tin

HEY!  Beyond pricing, check out what nuts.com had to say about the HEALTH BENEFITS of eating nuts!  “A 2013 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine examined 76,464 women and 42,498 men and found that consumption of nuts such as cashews was inversely associated with total and cause-specific mortality. The study also found that eating nuts regularly can stave off weight gain. Previous studies have indicated that the high nutrient content of unsaturated fats, dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals in nuts may help reduce the risk for chronic conditions such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.” 

There you have it – eating these puppies will make you skinnier, healthier, and help you live longer.  What more can you ask for, people???

All I can say is:  KEEP EATING NUTS, DAVID!  I want you to be healhy and live a really long time!

Since David is the expert I, of course, asked him for his rating of these cashews first.  He gave them a 4.5 and I am happy to support that.  In fact, now that I see how the price seems to rate compared to other retailers, I am bumping that rating up a bit!!  If you like cashews these are really good. 

Price – $6.99 (16 oz)

Rating – 4.75

Day 155 - Coconut Cashews

Not only did we BUY this big bag of coconut cashews, we deliberately went back through line a SECOND TIME to buy them.  We had already checked out at the Palm Beach Gardens, Florida Trader Joe’s when David spied these and we thought, “Why not??!”. 

David is the cashew lover at our house.  Cashews are usually not good to me – too buttery or meaty or something (not that I have anything against butter or meat, I guess what I am trying to say is cashews are not my favorite…).  We were heading into a few days of rest and relaxation for David and stocking up on treats for him to munch on so these seemed like a good fit.  I would be working long hours, he would be munching cashews.

This looks like the perfect snack for a few days of relaxation, right?

 Only, not so much.  I came back to find him in the hotel room eating OTHER snacks but having only consumed a couple of these cashews.  “What’s wrong with them?” I asked.  “They are CASHEWS – you dig cashews!  And COCONUT – also on your “like” list.”  His reply – “They are, I dunno, they are just BLAH.”

So I tried one.  And I agree – blah blah blah.  Salt is listed as an ingredient, but it is the last one listed so I assume it is only a teeny tiny dash per 5,000,000,000 cashews or something.  These puppies could use a more generous dusting of SEA SALT.  We both agree that would perk the flavor up.

Cashews are always crazy expensive and these are no exception

The packaging says “We’ve married two favorite tropical flavors to come up with a Trader Joe’s treat that we bet you won’t be able to stop eating!”.  Well Joe, you lose that bet.  We stopped eating these right after we opened the big, expensive 14 oz bag and will be returning them today for a refund.  Sorry!  These just didn’t work for us.

Our suggestions:  add SEA SALT and package them in a very tiny bag instead of this huge one.  That will make them tastier and cheaper.  David adds, “Add something tasty to them to give them some zing – maybe LIME or CHILI POWDER!”.  Until then – refund please.

Price – $6.99

Rating – 2.5