The Good: Good cinnamon flavor, Fairly nutritious.
The Bad: A little pricey, Cocoa flavor is exceptionally weak.
The Basics: The Cocoa and Cinnamon Flavor Grove Almonds from Planters are a decent snack together, but on their own are unfortunately weak for those looking for a healthy salty-sweet snack.
Over the weekend, my wife and I were thrilled to discover giant carts of treats filled with snacks and drinks being clearanced that were enough to get our tastebuds watering. As I have been on a kick with nuts lately, because they are so surprisingly good for us, I gravitated toward a bunch of Planters products, while my wife nabbed some hot chocolate for us. The first one I was eager to try was the Planters Flavor Grove Cocoa and Cinnamon Almonds.
The Cocoa and Cinnamon Flavor Grove Almonds left me initially bewildered as the combination of the two flavors seemed unnecessary. I instantly suspected that Planters was not having luck marketing the different flavors of almonds on their own (a suspicion bolstered by my wife geeking out over the Vanilla and Caramel Flavor Grove Almonds) and combined them more for pragmatism than the belief that the flavors would all be ideal together. Even so, I was less surprised than I would like to discover I enjoyed half the contents of the bag quite a bit more than the other half!
Basics
Planters Cocoa and Cinnamon flavor Flavor Grove Almonds are a ready-to-eat snack that combines two complimentary flavors of lightly sweetened nuts. Packaged in an 6 oz. stiff plastic resealable bag, the Flavor Grove Almonds are kept fresh until opened. After removing the safety seal, consumers have access to the almonds that are dusted with a powder that gives them their Cocoa or Cinnamon flavor; the two types of almonds are mixed together. The two types of almonds are very easy to keep straight; the cocoa almonds are dark brown and the cinnamon ones are white with a little dusting of yellow and red powder coating.
Outside their frosted appearance, the Cocoa and Cinnamon Flavor Grove Almonds look just like ordinary almonds. Each 6 oz. container has six 1 ounce servings easily dispensed through the wide top of the bag.
Ease Of Preparation
These are flavored, roasted nuts, so preparing them is as easy as opening the bag they come in and consuming them. There is no trick or work needed to eat Cocoa and Cinnamon flavor Flavor Grove Almonds.
Taste
The Cocoa and Cinnamon Flavor Grove Almonds smell deliciously like overwhelmingly like Cinnamon. This is one of the sweetest, warmest smelling bags of nuts I have ever opened, certainly one of the best smelling collection of nuts from a major company.
Planters made the Cinnamon almonds exceptionally sweet. Not generically sweet, these nuts are coated in a cinnamon sugar that is instantly reminiscent of Cinnamon Toast Crunch (cereal). The flavor is distinctive and fairly strong. On virtually every nut I had, the cinnamon flavor coated the entire nut. However, once the coating is broken (i.e. by chewing), the almond flavor quickly overwhelms the tastebuds.
Unfortunately more erratic are the chocolate almonds. Planters dusts the Cocoa almonds with a surprisingly light dusting of cocoa. This results in an almond that tastes like it was dropped into hot chocolate powder and it is not the strongest chocolate flavor at all. Like a light milk chocolate flavor, over half the almonds in my bag tasted like the chocolate had been partially washed off them. In other words, this is not the most robust chocolate flavor and the almond flavor easily overwhelms the consumer on these nuts.
Mixed together (an experiment I did because I presumed there was a reason Planters combined the two flavors), the sweet cinnamon easily overpowers the strangely weaker chocolate. The cinnamon flavor seems to be extended some when the nuts are combined, so when chewed together, the cinnamon flavor actually overcomes the bitter almond taste well enough to keep the consumer happy. The lack of a strong chocolate flavor, though, left me a bit disappointed.
Nutrition
After my recent experiences with almonds, I was not surprised that Planters Cocoa and Cinnamon Flavor Grove Almonds are fairly healthy! A serving is considered 28 grams which is about an ounce (an estimated twenty-four nuts). With the standard recommended serving size, the nuts have 12 grams of fat! That's 18% of the RDA of fat, with 5% of the RDA coming from the one gram of saturated fat! There is 6% of the RDA of calcium and five grams of protein, these surprisingly full of nutrients. In addition to potassium (180mg) and a fairly low amount of salt (only 40 mg sodium!), these nuts have iron, Vitamin E, riboflavin, Magnesium, copper, phosphorous and Manganese. Other nuts I have had lately have had more nutrients, but these are still not bad at all.
The ingredients list for these Cocoa and Cinnamon flavor Flavor Grove Almonds is fairly short, which is nice because most of the ingredients are natural. Planters are made primarily of almonds, sugar and honey. There is nothing unpronounceable in these nuts and the ingredients are very healthy. Obviously, these nuts are manufactured on equipment that processes peanuts and other tree nuts.
Storage/Clean-up
Just as with the preparation, Planters Cocoa and Cinnamon flavor Flavor Grove Almonds candies are low stress when it comes to storage and cleanup. Storage is simple when the nuts are kept in their bag at room temperature or cooler. Kept sealed in their bag, these nuts would not expire until September, 2012, which is why I suppose they were on clearance.
Planters Flavor Grove Almonds are easy to clean up after as well. Simply wash your hands after eating to get any stray flavor dust off. There should be no other residue, but if there is, it may easily be wiped away with a damp cloth.
Overall
Planters Cocoa and Cinnamon flavor Flavor Grove Almonds are a real mixed bag. I was not impressed with the cocoa flavored nuts, but the cinnamon ones were actually quite delightful and I would look for those again.
For other nut reviews, please visit my takes on:
Planters Crème Brule Almonds
Blue Diamond Cocoa Oven Roasted Almonds
Wonderful Pistachios
5/10
For other food and drink reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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