Strange romanization of Korean to English aside, Tom’s Farm Tteokbokki Almond is a pack of almonds that harnesses the flavor of Korea’s favorite snack, Ddeokbokki. I hope you see what I did there, because I can’t understand why it’s sometimes spelled with a “double -t.” From here on out, I’ll just play dumb and call it by the name that was chosen by the people over at Tom’s Farm…
I digress…
Anyways, if you’re new to the flavor of “tteokbokki,” it’s a dish consists of long, cylindrical rice cakes, fish cakes, scallions, eggs, and sometimes several other ingredients depending on who’s making it, covered in a sweet and spicy deep red sauce made from gochujang (red chili paste). South Koreans love it and so do plenty of people that come to visit and give it a try. It’s definitely a uniquely Korean dish that makes a significant visual impact when placed on the table. I might be in the minority, but it took me several years of being exposed to it before truly finding it delicious. Honestly, I’ve never heard of someone who shared a similar relationship with the dish. Despite my foreign experience, this country-wide favorite naturally became a dish that we would find reduced to a topping for use on other snacks, like almonds in this case! So, that’s basically what happened here. We now have a powdered form of “tteokbokki" that we can enjoy whenever the convenience is needed. Does it taste any good to my unholy, outsider taste buds? We’ll just have to find out!
Packaging:
In this tiny, slender package consisting of only 29 grams out of 30 (1.06 ounces), I counted exactly 23 almonds. I say this every time, but the package was slightly underweight. But honestly, who’s keeping score anymore?
In the artwork today, we’ve got a spittin' example of ddeokbokki right in the center of the image. Dang, that looks good! The warm color palette really does work well with the redness of the dish, too. It really helps to convey the spiciness, ingredients, and natural colors in the artwork. There are plenty of red chili peppers surrounding our almond friends, which is good, because they’re usually up to no good. The little guy atop the ddeokbokki has a mega spoonful of it, so hopefully his friends look out below! Probably my favorite almond is the one with the rice cake hair-rollers. She’s very cute. The almond next to her is snacking on a piece of spicy pepper, while the final almond is carrying a large amount of gochujang. I’m not sure what he’s going to do with that much of it! Overall, I think I’m digging the cover art today. It’s relevant and quite fun!
Flavor:
Tom’s Farm Tteokbokki Almond has an interesting flavor to say the least. These have a thin dusting of tteokbokki flavoring, err… barbecue potato chips. It’s really hard to tell the difference to be honest. Alright, so maybe these don’t have the most accurate flavor of tteokbokki, but I still find them tasty, if not a tad spicier than I was expecting. These almonds are nowhere near the spiciness of some of the lethally spicy ramen noodles I have reviewed, but children with sensitive palates might not be able to handle these. Adults should have no problem though! Other than the spiciness, the dusting of this spicy barbecue flavored powder is razor thin. I’m guessing it was around a millimeter in thickness.
To describe the flavor flow a bit, the first hit of flavor is sweet with that delicious barbecue chip flavor. The sweetness then gives way to the spiciness that you can feel in your mouth and nose. It’s only a tickle, so don’t worry. The last bit of the flavor is almonds, which I think is great. I want the flavor of almonds to be present in the overall flavor. These are almonds after all!
Aroma:
Tteokbokki Almond smells less like tteokbokki and more like spicy barbecue flavored chips, for better or for worse! That’s not to say that they don’t smell like tteokbokki at all, because they do, if only a little… The aroma is more of a mixture of both aromas. The spiciness that I talked about in the flavor section isn’t present in the fragrance. The kids might not run away immediately, but they sure will be in for a surprise later! I guess you could even buy these for a mild practical joke against evil children, if you wanted to. It’s completely hidden by the sweet notes of barbecue (insert devilish cackle here).
Verdict:
You can lie to yourself and say these taste like tteokbokki, but they really don’t. While normally, I would be disappointed, I kind of like the flavor of spicy barbecue chips. These are delicious regardless of lacking flavor accuracy. As long as you’re being honest with yourself about the flavor and just want a tasty snack, these are a decent buy. However, if you’re looking for that unique tteokbokki flavor, just go buy the rea thing, because these don’t do the flavor justice.
Did you like ddeokbokki the first time you tried it? What other snacks go well with ddeokbokki flavoring or spicy barbecue? Let me know in the comments!
If you’re interested in hearing more about Korean snack nuts or instant ramen, check out my on-going series, Noodle Story: An Exploration of Korean Instant Noodles and my other series, I Think I’m Going Nuts: An Eyeful of South Korea’s Little Snack Nuts, here on Medium.
