What a nutty twist we have for today! These aren’t Tom’s Farm Yogurt Almond, but Tom’s Farm Yogurt Cashewnut! I just call them cashews, but I’m okay with whatever “Tommy” wants to call them. Anyways, it’s been a couple of weeks since I reviewed Yogurt Almond, so allow me to give you a quick recap…
Yogurt Almond was far from my favorite package of almonds from Tom’s Farm. The yogurt flavoring was too artificial for my taste with a flavor that caters strongly to the audiences from a small collection of Asian countries. I know. I know. These nuts were produced in Asia and are definitely made by a Korean company. However, for the western audience that has probably never tasted Yakult Yogurt, unless you’ve lived in or visited either Japan or Korea, the “yogurt” flavor is not the yogurt you’re thinking of. It’s this looseness with the definition of yogurt that made me take a step back from the almonds in the first place. It’s not a disgusting yogurt flavor, but it does taste artificial with an overly sweet flavor profile. I think of Yakult Yogurt more as a sugary drink infused in the lab with a tiny drip of lactobacillus to make it seem healthy to the average Joe. When in fact, it’s just another crummy health product labeled by companies to trick the masses into consuming it. The elderly here apparently love it. I don’t know if it’s a remnant of Korea’s past that keeps it alive or what, but it sure does blast grandma’s blood sugar through the roof and give her a nice high. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention. Yoplait, Dannon, and the like are also complete garbage, so I’m not only picking on the Asian variant of crappy yogurt.
That’s it for the recap! Now, back to the cashews. I’m going to suspend my hatred for Yakult Yogurt a bit for this review. It’s blatantly obvious that I don’t really care for its flavor. What I want to know for today is…
Do the cashews work better with the “yogurt” flavor than the almonds?
I think this is fair, because I’ve already defined my personal preferences and opinions in the Yogurt Almond Review. The only thing that needs to be defined today is the difference between the two, no matter how subtle the difference is in reality. Well, with our goals clearly laid out in full in front of us, let’s see just how good Yogurt Cashewnut really is!
Packaging:
I broke out the mega package for today’s review! There’s enough cashews in this 190 gram package to deliver a proper snack time to at least 2 or 3 humans. I almost consider this package to be family size. Unfortunately, this package was barely underweight today at 189 grams. I’ll give Tom’s Farm a pass on this one today. Typically, I want every little gram or morsel that I can get, but for such a large package of nuts, this is acceptable. What do you think? Let me know down in the comments if you think I’m mistaken in this case and that businesses need to provide every last gram.
Surprisingly, there’s not much to say about the artwork today. Normally, I would go through the entire piece and describe what I like bit by bit, but the only thing that has really changed is the shift in characters from almonds to cashews. It’s still a clever piece of work though! I’ll leave you with one comment in case you’ve never seen Yakult Yogurt. It is basically what that bottle in the center is trying to show you. These cashews are doused in an almost perfectly replicated flavor to said yogurt drink. It truly is the star of the overall flavor!
Flavor:
As you’ve definitely noticed by now, these this package of nuts from Tom’s Farm are full of cashews and not almonds. This new nut addition completely changes the flavor profile into something that actually works better with the faux yogurt flavor. Yes. These cashews have the exact same Yakult Yogurt flavoring that covered the almonds of reviews past.
On first bite, you’re hit with the tartness of the yogurt flavoring. It’s quite a powerful sourness that almost seems too intense compared to real yogurt (No… Yoplait isn’t real yogurt). Following that brief hit, a gentle, sweetness counteracts much of the tartness. This rounds out the flavor leading up to the final burst of cashew flavor. The butteriness of cashews rears its head in the final notes of flavor, which elevate it with a richness you can’t find in almonds.
This flavor combination just works better with cashews instead of almonds. The added butteriness of the cashews add a new dimension to this type of flavored nut from Tom’s Farm.
Aroma:
The aroma is quite strong with Yogurt Cashewnut. It has a pretend yogurt aroma that smells sweet and tart, just like you would expect from a tiny plastic bottle of Yakult Yogurt. Because of its intense aroma, you can’t smell the cashews through the powdered yogurt exterior. That’s about all there is to note!
Verdict:
No surprise here, Yogurt Cashewnut is much better than Yogurt Almond, simply because cashews seemingly work better with the faux yogurt flavoring. The creamy and buttery flavor of cashews makes the flavor that much better. The exterior coating is also much more intense with cashews than with our almond friends. Personally, I would skip the almonds and grab a bag of these instead. However, if you’re really not a fan of cashews or totally into almonds, you’ll be happy to know that there are options available from Tom’s Farm, at least for their yogurt flavored almonds.
So, what’s your favorite kind of nut? Do you prefer cashews or almonds? What other nuts would go best with yogurt flavoring? 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.
