Monday, June 24, 2013

A Suitably Impressive Flavor Well Worth Trying, Wonderful Pistachios Sweet Chili Pistachios Are Great!


The Good: Fairly nutritious, Easy to open, Exceptionally flavorful
The Bad: Pricey!
The Basics: The Sweet Chili Pistachios from Wonderful Pistachios are a flavorful and intriguingly delightful snack well worth picking up, despite the expense!


When it comes to pistachios, I’m a pretty simple person: I love pistachios. I love pistachios and I don’t need flavors to love pistachios more. Still, I get intrigued from time to time and my amazing wife picked some flavors up as gifts for random I Love You Days (do other couples do that?). So, when on our last I Love You Day, she gave me a bag of Wonderful Pistachios Sweet Chili Pistachios and my initial reaction was “How can someone I love so much not know me?!” I am, as she knows, not a huge fan of spicy foods. Yet, there was the gift.

And hats off to Wonderful Pistachios! Their Sweet Chili Pistachios are incredible! These pistachios are the spicy pistachios for people who are not fans of spicy foods.

Basics

Wonderful Pistachios Sweet Chili flavor Pistachios are a ready-to-eat snack that attempts to zest up pistachio nuts with something other than the traditional salt flavor. While I was initially wary of the concept of the flavor, the execution is actually quite impressive. Packaged in a 7 oz. stiff plastic bag, the pistachios are kept fresh until opened. After tearing open the top of the bag, consumers have access to the pistachios that are still in their shells. The shells and any exposed portion of the nut beneath are coated with a reddish colored glaze that gives them their Sweet Chili flavor (and they have plenty!).

Outside the occasional orange clump of flavor glaze, the Sweet Chili Pistachios look just like ordinary pistachios. Each 7 oz. container has approximately three and a half servings after they have been shelled. These nuts are easily dispensed through the wide top of the bag. To be fair to Wonderful Pistachios, I encountered no shells without nuts, a few nuts without shells, and no shells too closed to gain easy access to the nuts in my bag!

Ease Of Preparation

These are flavored nuts, so preparing them is as easy as opening the bag they come in, cracking the shell open, and consuming them. There is no trick or work beyond that needed to eat Sweet Chili flavor pistachios.

Taste

The Sweet Chili Pistachios smell sweet and spicy, exactly like what one expects of chilis. There is nothing nutty to the scent and those who get excited for pepper flavors will enjoy the scent and feel enticed.

Cracking the shell open, the Sweet Chili Pistachios are well-glazed and the immediate sweetness of the Sweet Chili wears off after about three seconds. What follows is a fiery chili flavor that is not generically hot, it is the embodiment of the spicy pepper . . . at about ¼ strength. So, these pistachios have a kick, but are not at all unpleasant to eat. This is a flavorful snack, not an eye-poppingly hot experience. As the heat fades, the flavor of the nuts asserts itself and the buttery, pistachio flavor cools the tongue after the spice of the sweet chilis, making for a well-rounded flavor that satisfies those who like the spice and the nut!

These nuts have no significant aftertaste and thus the sweet chili heat does not need to be washed out of the mouth.

Nutrition

Having reviewed many types of nuts, I am not surprised that on the nutrition level Wonderful Pistachios pistachio nuts are a bit of a mixed blessing. A serving is considered 30 grams (shelled) which is about half a cup. With the standard recommended serving size, the nuts have 14 grams of fat! That's 22% of the RDA of fat, with 8% of the RDA coming from the one and a half grams of saturated fat! There is 2% of the RDA of calcium and six grams of protein, which is almost enough to make one look the other way on the fat content! In addition to potassium (260mg) and a predictably elevated amount of salt (290 mg sodium!), these nuts have iron and Vitamin B6, copper, phosphorous, and manganese, but not much else at all.

The ingredients list for these Sweet Chili flavor Pistachios is fairly short, which is nice because most of the ingredients are natural. Wonderful Pistachios are made primarily of Pistachios, sugar, and salt. There is nothing unpronounceable in these nuts and the ingredients are generally healthy. Obviously, these nuts are manufactured on equipment that processes nuts. Wonderful Pistachios notes that these at gluten free!

Storage/Clean-up

Just as with the preparation, Wonderful Pistachios Sweet Chili flavor Pistachios nuts 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 May 4, 2014 (or they would have if I had not finished them up already!).

Wonderful Pistachios Pistachios are easy to clean up after as well. Simply wash your hands after eating to get any of the leftover glaze off. There should be no other residue, but if there is, it may easily be wiped away with a damp cloth.

Overall

Wonderful Pistachios Sweet Chili flavor Pistachios were a pleasant surprise and were they not so expensive (the 7 oz bag costs more than a full pound of plain pistachios in the bulk food section!), they would be much easier to give a ringing endorsement for.

For other nut reviews, please visit my takes on:
Everybody's Nuts! Garlic & Onion Pistachios
Wonderful Pistachios
Planters Flavor Grove Jalapeno Pistachios

7/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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