Category Archives: Brands

Apr 25 2016
1 Comment
Brands, Kosher, Online vendors, Snacks, Sweets, Truly nut-free

Don’t Go Nuts

IMG_3219

I first heard about Don’t Go Nuts online, in the midst of one of many searches for nut-free granola bars. And while their bars aren’t quite granola, they’re nut-free—so I figured I’d give them a try.

Allergen information out of the way first, though. According to their FAQ, all of their products—both bars and spreads—are produced in a nut- and peanut-free facility, and they use their own signature Field to Fingers process to ensure their products really are safe for those with allergies. Plus, all their products are also certified gluten-free, and there’s no egg or sesame in their facility, either.

Anyway, I pulled up their store locator (which I’ve since learned has been out of order for a few months and which won’t be fixed for a few more) and was directed to Whole Foods and Lot-Less. Easy enough, I thought—I’m at Whole Foods often enough, and (for reasons I really don’t understand) there are three or four Lot-Less locations within walking distance of my apartment.

Long and incredibly boring story short, I went to two different Whole Foods locations and pretty much every Lot-Less I could find (over the course of a few weeks, mind you—I’m not that obsessive), but I didn’t see Don’t Go Nuts anywhere. The Lot-Less on Chambers Street has multiple walls and shelves devoted entirely to bars, but there wasn’t a Don’t Go Nuts logo in sight. Huh. I would’ve just caved and ordered them online, but Amazon only carries them in boxes of 12, which was a bit too much of a commitment for me, given that I’d never tried any of their flavors.

Really, really not wanting to blindly spend $20 on a box of 12 “snack bars,” I reached out to Don’t Go Nuts in the hopes that they’d be able to point me toward a store that actually carried their products. I ended up speaking with a very helpful woman who informed me that they’re currently in the process of switching to a new digital agency partner, hence the outdated store locator. In the meantime, though, their bars are sold at Fairway, Balducci’s, Westerly Natural Foods, Foodtown, Grace’s Marketplace, King’s, and Shop Rite. Plus, Lucky Vitamin and Vitacost sell individual bars online—which fact I apparently overlooked in my search.

What’s more, Don’t Go Nuts was generous enough to send me a few samples—two of each bar, actually, and a bunch of their soybean spreads, too. I certainly wouldn’t have had the money to try so many of their products within a timespan short enough to allow me to actually the compare the flavors effectively—so I was pretty grateful for the samples. And to get to the point, finally: I really enjoyed a lot of what I ate.

My favorite bar was definitely the Whitewater Chomp (granola with white chocolate chips and white chocolate drizzle). It’s very sweet—everything I tried was—but I’m not really complaining. It tasted a lot like coconut-flavored cookie dough (though Don’t Go Nuts is coconut-free), and it had a nice texture, similar to that of a Quaker Chewy Bar. I liked the Celestial Campout bar (honey graham with white and dark chocolate) as well, though the chocolate they use isn’t the tastiest—so perhaps the Boogie Board Bash (same deal, but without the dark chocolate) would be a better choice.

I will admit, though, that I wasn’t a huge fan of the fig flavor that was so strong in some of the bars (Blueberry Blast, Lift Service). But maybe that’s just me. I’ve never been a huge fan of fig-based desserts. Overall, though, the bars were pretty decent. Be warned, though: If super-sweet bars aren’t your thing, stay away from Don’t Go Nuts. If they’re for a child, though—or if you have huge a sweet tooth—they’ll probably be perfect.

The spreads are good, too—but only as a last-ditch substitute for peanut butter. I liked the Slightly Sweet and Chocolate flavors best, but both were a bit watery. They definitely had that strange imitation-nut-butter flavor, and the texture was off, too. (But perhaps I’m just being picky because I can actually eat the real deal; if I were allergic to peanuts, I’m sure I’d be really grateful for these.)

In all, Don’t Go Nuts is a pretty solid company, and their products are worth the effort it takes to seek them out and give them a try, if you’re in the mood for something super sweet. Just…try not to go nuts looking for them. (I’ll see myself out.)

Tagged , , , ,
Apr 19 2016
1 Comment
Brands, Kosher, Sweets, Technically not nut-free

Girl Scout Cookies (!!!)

Two boxes of Girl Scout Cookies

The other day, I took an adventure on the Long Island Railroad and happened upon a Walmart, outside of which a table of Girl Scouts (well, Girl Scouts’ mothers) were selling box after box of cookies. Unable to help myself, I bought some Thin Mints and continued on my way—happily, until about 30 seconds later, when I began to regret not getting a box of Samoas, too. But this is prime Girl Scout Cookie season, and I was in the middle of a strip mall on Long Island,so it was only about 20 minutes until I came across another table of cookie-selling Scouts, this time at the entrance to Roosevelt Field Mall.

Girl Scout Cookies are manufactured by two different companies, so the allergen information I’m about to recap is two-fold. The cookies I bought were made by Little Brownie Bakers, so I’ll go over them first. According to their FAQ:

If the allergen in concern is not listed below the ingredient statement, we are confident that the product is safe for consumption. Please trust the labeling. We do use a may contain statement for peanuts and tree nuts when the product is produced on a line that shares equipment with another product that does contain peanuts or tree nuts.

Some of their cookies contain peanuts, but none contain (or may contain) any sort of tree nuts—with the except of the Savannah Smiles, which come with a “may contain” warning (and which should thus pose very little risk of cross-contamination). Ingredient information for individual cookies can be found here.

The situation at ABC Bakers is similar. According to their FAQ, they’re a very allergy-aware company, and they employ the following practices to reduce the risk of cross-contamination:

  • Segregation of known allergens from the general production environment
  • Color-coding of storage units and utensils
  • Curtained-off production areas
  • Designated lanes for transportation of known allergens
  • Swabbing and testing of allergen shared equipment

What’s more:

In addition, we call out all allergens on our packaging, order cards and web site and provide specific warning if a product is made on a line that also produces product with a common allergen such as peanuts.

The allergen information for individual cookies can be found here. Again, a few cookies contain (or may contain) peanuts—but the only cookie with any sort of tree nut warning is the Trios. (And again, that’s a product that comes with a “may contain” warning, rather than one that actually contains nuts—so the risk of cross-contamination should be low indeed.) In general, both Little Brownie and ABC seem to be pretty trustworthy, with regard to allergens and labeling. (And I’ve never had any allergen-related issues with Girl Scout cookies, if you’re into meaningless anecdotal evidence.)

Anyway. Girl Scout Cookies are delicious—but I don’t need to convince anyone of that, because it’s pretty much common knowledge at this point. Sure, part of their appeal is due to the fact that they’re only available seasonally and are thus kept relatively scarce—but we all know that’s not the only reason everyone loves them so much. They’re just plain good. (Well, some of them are. I can’t vouch for anyone who claims to like Trefoils. But give me a box of Thin Mints and it’ll take me some serious self-control to stop myself from finishing both sleeves in one sitting.)

To find a table of cookie-clad Girl Scouts near you, refer to the Girl Scouts’ cookie locator—or spend a day wandering around shopping centers in Carle Place. Either way.

Tagged , , ,
Apr 18 2016
Leave a comment
Brands, Kosher, Snacks, Truly nut-free

Somersaults Sunflower Seed Bites

Somersault

It’s always a pleasure to stumble upon a box or bag of something that proudly declares itself nut-free. Usually, I’m just looking for packaging that doesn’t explicitly tell me to stay away—so I tend to be pretty surprised when a “made in a nut-free facility” works its way in there. Whatever it is, I’ll probably buy it then and there on principle alone—unless it’s grotesquely overpriced (which most things tend to be at the types of stores that carry allergen-free products).

I came across Somersaults Sunflower Seed Bites at Whole Foods, where almost everything is, in fact, grotesquely overpriced. But these were only around $3, so I went for it. And they really are nut-free! According to their website’s FAQ:

Somersaults are nut free and do not contain any nuts. Somersaults are baked in a nut free environment. With the rise of nut allergies, especially in children, we understand the importance of offering a nut free snack alternative that is nutritionally dense and absolutely delicious!

I bought the salt & pepper flavor, which was overbearingly peppery—but I wasn’t quite ready to give up on these things, so I went back for the sea salt version. Much, much, much better. They’re well-salted, and they taste predominantly like sunflower seeds, which is a relief after trying to get through the salt & pepper bag. Overall, I like them—though I can’t eat more than, say, 10 at a time.

There isn’t much more to say about these things—but if you like sunflower seeds, Somersaults are worth a try. Find them at Whole Foods, Target, and Stop & Shop.

Tagged , , , ,
Apr 13 2016
6 Comments
Brands, Online vendors, Sweets, Technically not nut-free

Tate’s Bake Shop (or, alternatively: The World’s Least Scientific Experiment)

tates

Let me emphasize: Tate’s Bake Shop is not at all nut-free. In fact, they’re probably the least nut-free company I’ve discussed on this blog—but their cookies are (quite literally) irresistible, so I’ve decided to do some research.

Every Tate’s bag clearly states that their cookies are made in a facility that also processes pecans, walnuts, almonds, and macadamia nuts. Trader Joe’s sells a very similar product under their private label—though they only sell the gluten-free chocolate chip and ginger chunk varieties—and theirs are without any sort of nut-related allergen warning (which, at Trader Joe’s, generally means they really are safe). The Trader Joe’s cookies are absolutely delicious, even sans gluten—so I’ve been dying to try the real deal for a while now.

Anyway, I sent an email to Tate’s and received the following reply:

I wanted to reach out to let you know we do use the same equipment to pack nut containing cookies as our non-nut containing cookies. We have specific cleaning procedures in place to ensure that all nut protein is removed from the equipment. We then test the equipment to ensure that all proteins have been removed. This is all documented and signed off by the supervisors. Additionally, we do have statements from our ingredient purveyors indicating there is no nut cross contamination.

Honestly, the above reply was way better than I’d expected. So much better, in fact, that it seemed too good to be true. I decided to call to double-check, and the phone calls that followed were…interesting, to say the least. The first woman I spoke to told me that she couldn’t think of anyone who would be able to answer my questions, but she did give the phone number for the Tate’s warehouse.

I called the warehouse and reiterated my questions to a few different people until I was transferred to someone who essentially repeated verbatim what I’d been told via email. That, combined with the fact that very few people at Tate’s seem to be all that well versed in their allergen policies—and the fact that this particular woman sounded rather annoyed—led me to believe (without about 95% certainty) that I was speaking to the same woman I’d been in contact with via email.

It was a brief and unpleasant conversation, but the fact remained: The manufacturing practices at Tate’s sounded good to me. So given that I don’t really have a history of reacting to products that may contain trace amounts of nuts—and given that I was feeling especially irresponsible on that particular Tuesday—I figured I’d give Tate’s the good old taste test. So I did. And I didn’t react.

Of course, everyone’s allergies are different—so do with that what you will. In fact, please take all of this with an entire shaker of salt. Much like my post on IT’SUGAR, this post doesn’t come with any recommendations; it’s mostly just a recap of my poor decisions and the experiences that came of them.

…All right. Now that we’ve gotten all that out of the way, we can spend a minute talking about the cookies themselves. I only tried the chocolate chip, but they’re absolutely wonderful—by far the best store-bought cookie I’ve ever had (though if we’re counting the Trader Joe’s version as a separate product, those come in a very close second). They’re perfectly crispy, buttery, and salty, with chocolate chips good enough to win me over—and I hate chocolate chips. Seriously: Tate’s are in a league of their own, and if you can eat them…well, you need to.

I’m really looking forward to trying their other flavors, if a little slowly and stressfully. The Chipless, the gingersnap, the vanilla, the Ginger Zinger, the mint chocolate chip, and the oatmeal raisin are all calling me. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Find Tate’s at…most grocery stores, really. Try Whole Foods, Citarella, Stop & Shop, Fairway, Eli’s, Gourmet Garage, or Westside Market.

Tagged , , , ,
Apr 07 2016
Leave a comment
Brands, Kosher, Snacks, Truly nut-free

Karen’s Naturals

Dried corn from Karen's Naturals

I was at Westside Market the other day when I stumbled upon a bag of Karen’s Naturals freeze-dried corn. More out of habit than interest, I picked up the bag to read the ingredients, and, lo and behold, the company turned out to be nut-free. There’s nothing like coming across those words on a package of food—so naturally, I felt obligated to give this stuff a try.

According to their various product pages, all of the products sold by Karen’s Naturals are free from gluten, dairy, wheat, and nuts. They also don’t use any additives or preservatives—in fact, the only ingredient in their freeze-dried corn is…well, freeze-dried corn.

Karen’s sells freeze-dried fruits and vegetables, and various fruit powders, too. As of right now, I’ve only tried the corn and the strawberry-banana mix, but both are pretty good, as far as freeze-dried food goes. There’s definitely something weird about eating freeze-dried corn by the handful—but it isn’t necessarily weird in a bad way. The strawberries, though, are so flavorful (read: sour) that they overpowered the bananas in the mix. Still, not bad.

Both were plausible snacks, at the very least. In any case, I’m certainly looking forward to trying some of their other products. (Right now, I’m eyeing the freeze-dried peas. And the pomegranate. And the pineapple. I’m a sucker for pineapple.)

Find Karen’s Naturals at Westside Market, Fairway, and a bunch of other markets (or, of course, on their website).

Tagged , , , ,
Apr 02 2016
1 Comment
Brands, Kosher, Online vendors, Snacks, Sweets, Truly nut-free

Divvies

A bag of Divvies

Another allergen-free brand—this time, decidedly without nuts, peanuts, milk, egg, or sesame. All their products are vegan, and their popcorn and chocolates are gluten-free, too. Overkill, for the nut-allergic (as I’ve said time and time again), but valuable nonetheless.

Divvies is serious about safety. They require allergen-free statements from their vendors, and they test their own products regularly to ensure they’re truly free from all they’re said to be free from. (The founder’s son has a bunch of food allergies; you can read all about the company’s story here.) So evidently, the folks at Divvies really mean it when they say their food is allergen-free.

They have a decent variety of products, too: cookies, cookie sandwiches, brownies, chocolate bars, chocolate chips, cupcakes, and popcorn. The popcorn—especially the kettle corn—is so, so good. It’s a little expensive for such a small portion ($6 for 3 oz of popcorn), but I’m telling you, it’s delicious, and you’d never know it was free of anything if you didn’t read the label.

Unfortunately, that’s where my praise ends. I’ll admit: I’ve never made it through an entire Divvies cookie sandwich—and that’s not for lack of trying. Stubborn (hopeful?) as I am, I keep buying them, but I just can’t get on board. The chocolate’s all right, and the regular cookies are certainly way better than the cookie sandwiches—but in general, Divvies makes some pretty unsatisfying stuff. (Though I should probably mention that I haven’t tried their brownies or their cupcakes. Perhaps that’s where the magic lies.)

Maybe I’d be a bit more grateful for Divvies if I had more food allergies. I really do appreciate their existence, though, and I make a point of throwing some money their way every once in a while. And like I said, their kettle corn is delicious. But overall, I’d say Enjoy Life trumps Divvies if we’re comparing overkill companies—and it isn’t a particularly close call.

Find their products at Whole Foods, Gourmet Garage, Fairway, Union Market, and a bunch of other places, too.

Tagged , , , ,
Mar 31 2016
1 Comment
Brands, Kosher, Snacks, Truly nut-free

MadeGood Foods: Granola for the wealthy

MadeGood granola bites

I like granola bars, but it’s tough to find brands that don’t put nuts in every other one of their products. Most of the companies without “may contain” warnings on their labels are those with decidedly nut-free facilities—and in my experience, most nut-free facilities that handle granola are free of the rest of the top 8 allergens, too. That’s great, of course, for those with lots of food allergies, but it isn’t quite ideal for those who are only allergic to nuts. Foregoing nuts doesn’t tend to make a product taste funny—but sacrificing wheat, dairy, egg, or soy? Another matter entirely.

In case you can’t tell where I’m going with this: MadeGood‘s granola is free from the top 8 allergens, so it wasn’t as though I had the urge to drop everything and run to the store the second I heard about their granola. Still, a granola bar is a granola bar—and I do like to support allergen-free companies—so when I came across their logo on a trip to Whole Foods, I figured I’d give MadeGood a try.

They make granola bars and granola minis (basically bars in ball form) in five flavors: chocolate chip, mixed berry, strawberry, chocolate banana, and apple cinnamon. I ended up with the chocolate banana minis—I would’ve gone with strawberry, but there were none in sight—and they were better than I expected, which says approximately nothing, seeing as it’s typically a bad idea to expect much at all from allergen-free products. They were all right, though—chewy with a nice banana flavor—but definitely overpriced, at almost $5 for a box of 4 small pouches, each containing maybe 10 bite-sized granola balls.

Really, all I can say is that they’re passable. They aren’t egregiously gluten-free, but they do have a bit of that tellingly dusty wheatless texture to them. I did like their chewiness, though, and the banana didn’t taste artificial in the slightest—so maybe I’ll buy them again one day. (Probably not. They’re overpriced.)

Find them at Whole Foods and maybe Costco, if you’re lucky.

Tagged , , , ,
Mar 25 2016
3 Comments
Brands, Kosher, Online vendors, Truly nut-free

Enjoy Life Foods

A bowl of Enjoy Life Sea Salt Plentils

I’ve been hearing talk of Enjoy Life for years, but it wasn’t until today that I got around to actually trying their products. Everything they make is free from wheat, dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, soy, fish, shellfish, sulfites, crustaceans, sesame, and mustard—which is perhaps why I’ve never really sought out their food. My only allergy is to tree nuts, so brands like Enjoy Life tend to be a bit overkill for me. I like my wheat, my dairy, my eggs—but you know what? Allergy-friendly companies are wonderful (and hard to come by), so I figured I should give this one a try, at the very least.

With Enjoy Life, there’s virtually no chance of cross-contamination—so if your allergies are severe, they’re definitely a good company to add to your list. The way they handle allergens is truly impressive; if you don’t believe me, check out their page on free-from living, or their FAQ. I’d quote from their website, but I’d basically end up reproducing the whole thing, as it’s absolutely filled with information about food allergies. Seriously. Go see for yourself.

But onto the food! Enjoy Life was generous enough to send me three products to sample (a box of chocolate chip soft-baked cookies, a box of Cocoa Loco chewy bars, and a bag of sea salt Plentils), though their generosity won’t keep me from being honest. Fortunately, though, I don’t have to say anything bad, because everything I tried was pretty tasty—especially given that it’s all free from so many ingredients.

My favorite product, by a significant margin, was the sea salt Plentils (pictured above). They’re lentil chips—though they don’t taste anywhere near as boring as the words “lentil chips” would have you think—and they come in a bunch of other flavors I’m now dying to try: dill & sour cream, Margherita pizza, and garlic & parmesan.

I was genuinely surprised at how good they were. The real test for allergen-free products comes down to the question of whether you’d still want to eat the product if you weren’t allergic to the alternatives, and in my experience, very few products pass that test—but Plentils do, and with flying colors. I could easily see myself downing a bag of these (and it took some serious self-control to stop shoveling them into my mouth as I was about to start cooking last night’s dinner). For real: They’re great—light, airy, salty, and even a little buttery, somehow—and I highly recommend them.

The soft-baked cookies are way better than I expected them to be, too. Actually, they’re the only tolerable soft-baked cookie I’ve ever eaten out of a box. Unlike the Plentils, they did have somewhat of a distinct allergen-free taste—but perhaps that’s just because I was really expecting them to. Still, these are worlds ahead of most packaged soft-baked cookies—mostly because they taste way less artificial. They have a nice chewy texture and a decent flavor, which were both pleasant surprises.

[Edit: A few days later, I went out and bought a box of the snickerdoodle soft-baked cookies. Way, way, way better than the chocolate chip ones. They don’t have any sort of allergen-free taste to them (I think it was the chocolate chips that were doing it) and they have a really lovely texture. They, like the Plentils, pass the allergen-free-product test with plenty of wiggle room, and I highly recommend them.]

Finally, the chewy bars. They come in a few flavors: mixed berry, caramel apple, SunSeed Crunch, and Cocoa Loco. I tried the Cocoa Loco, and it really did taste like cocoa powder. They’re not terrible, and I could certainly imagine children loving them, but they were definitely my least favorite of the three products I tried. To me, they tasted like imitation brownies—but perhaps I’d love them if I were five years old. Or if I had more food allergies.

Still, overall, I would certainly recommend Enjoy Life to anyone with any of the relevant dietary restrictions. To my surprise, nothing I tried was bad; in fact, I was pretty impressed with how good (most of) it was. And that’s coming from someone who can’t get through a Divvies cookie.

…Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go hunt down the rest of those Plentil flavors.

(Find Enjoy Life’s products at Whole Foods, Food Emporium, Fairway, Stop & Shop, and Rite Aid—or on Enjoy Life’s own website.)

[Edit, from the distant future (um, September 8th, 2016): I have a new favorite Enjoy Life product, and I’m so into it that I straight-up needed to revisit this post and mention this stuff. It’s the Beach Bash Seed and Fruit Mix, and it’s to die for. It’s made up of sunflower kernels, pumpkin seeds, dried pineapples, dried apricots, and dried cranberries—so nothing that has the potential to take on that free-from taste—and though it’s not at all easy to find, it’s definitely worth the hunt.]

Tagged , , , ,
Mar 22 2016
2 Comments
Brands, Snacks, Technically not nut-free

Skippy P.B. Bites: an astonishingly decent snack

Two packages of Skippy P.B. Bites, one pretzel and one peanut butter

Quick post, because a) this is unimportant, b) these aren’t guaranteed to be nut-free, and c) a bunch of you are probably allergic to peanuts anyway. But I’ve finally found these elusive P.B. Bites after looking just about everywhere for weeks, so you’re going to have to hear about them.

Allergen information first. P.B. Bites (obviously) contain peanuts, but as far as I can tell, they don’t contain nuts. The allergen information on Skippy’s product information page is as follows: “Milk ingredients present, Peanuts (groundnuts) ingredients present, Soy ingredients present, Wheat ingredients present, Gluten present.” I reached out to Skippy to make sure their products were free of all traces of tree nuts, but they never got back to me. Anyway, I know this isn’t much of a guarantee—but I’ve been eating Skippy’s peanut butter for my entire life, and I’ve never had any sort of allergic reaction.

[Edit: I ended up hearing back from Skippy a few days after publishing this post. I was told that tree nuts are present in the facility in which P.B. Bites are made, but that they aren’t processed on the same equipment, and that Skippy has a HACCP program in place to prevent cross-contamination. Their actual peanut butter is made in a peanut-only facility, though.]

Anyway, I apparently become extremely impressionable the second any sort of food shows up on my TV. I’m not even that into peanut butter, but for some reason, when I saw the ad for these, my pupils turned to spirals and I figured I just had to have them. I used Skippy’s product locator (well, it’s Hormel’s, but whatever), but none of the stores I went to had the stupid things, so I gave up and ordered some from Walmart. Of course, within a day of stopping my search, I spotted them—on a routine trip to Fairway. Go figure.

The anatomy of the P.B. bite is very simple—it’s just a little ball of either pretzel or peanut butter, covered in a layer of smooth peanut butter. Both varieties are fine, really, though the pretzel may be a bit better, due to the added salt and crunch factors. Honestly, I was expecting both varieties to be terrible (though that didn’t make my search any less urgent), but terrible they are not. In fact, they’re astonishingly decent.

That’s about all I have to say, really. I’m just a sucker for new (junk) food products—especially when I can eat them. And these just happen to be all right.

(I’m not even going to pretend I know where you can get your hands on some P.B. Bites of your very own; Skippy’s product locator was decidedly unhelpful—probably because these things are so new. Amazon has them for an absurd price of $12 per 6-ounce cup, and you can order them from Walmart for $3.13 per cup, though the shipping costs more than the P.B. Bites themselves. If you can find them, though—and if you like peanut butter—they’re worth a try. Good luck.)

Tagged , , , , , ,
Mar 16 2016
1 Comment
Brands, Kosher, Online vendors, Sweets, Truly nut-free

Raaka Chocolate: for the adult in you

One of Raaka's (nut-free) coconut milk

You know, I was really beginning to think the day would never come that I’d enjoy a piece of dark chocolate. (I’ve been known to walk around Trader Joe’s and sneer at all the goodies they insist on ruining with dark chocolate—on principle alone, since I’m probably allergic anyway.)

…That is, Until I found Raaka: a small-batch craft chocolate company based in Red Hook, Brooklyn. (Think Mast Brothers, but allergy-friendly.) They don’t roast their cacao beans—which is apparently an unconventional move in the world of chocolate-making—in order to showcase the beans’ natural flavors, and all of their chocolate is dark (which is to say that it’s above 60% cacao). It didn’t sound good, but boy, was I wrong.

First things first, though. According to their FAQ, Raaka is pretty allergy-friendly:

We take allergies very seriously at Raaka. None of our products contain gluten, dairy, soy, or nuts. Additionally, we ensure that no nuts ever enter our factory. However, we are not certified nut-free: we cannot guarantee that all our suppliers also maintain a nut-free environment. Please shop responsibly.

Very, very, very few companies can guarantee nut-free suppliers—but I find Raaka’s policy pretty promising. The fact that they don’t allow any nuts into their facility is especially reassuring, so I’ve categorized them as truly nut-free. Still, as they said: please shop responsibly.

I especially like the Coconut Milk bar, which is pretty creamy at only 60% cacao. I was skeptical when I read (on the wrapper) about the alleged “tasting notes” of strawberry and caramel, but Raaka isn’t kidding. The strawberry flavor is subtle, but it’s definitely there. Honestly, I’ve spent my 19 years rabidly hating dark chocolate—but this bar was the first step in my conversion.

The Cabernet Sauvignon bar (67% cacao) is lovely, too. Apparently, they steam cacao nibs over simmering wine before grinding those nibs to make the bar. Again, the “tasting notes” of grape and oak are real (though I refuse to stop putting “tasting notes” in scare quotes—if only so I can continue to live with myself). The bar is part of a limited batch that Raaka’s subscribers singled out as one of their favorites from 2015. (Raaka offers a monthly subscription called First Nibs; for $24.95/month, they’ll ship you three chocolate bars—two new flavors, and one classic—on the 15th of each month. Perhaps if I were rich…)

I’ve also tried the Mint & Nibs (56% cacao) and the Pink Sea Salt (71% cacao)—but that’s where I stopped, because at $7 each, these chocolate bars have me well on my way to the poorhouse. Still, both were good. The Mint & Nibs is refreshingly light in comparison to the others, and the Pink Sea Salt is…well, salty. Nice.

Anyway, from what I’ve tasted, Raaka’s bars are consistently good, and I highly recommend you give them a try, even if you aren’t into dark chocolate. Find Raaka most reliably at Whole Foods—or at their factory, located (in Red Hook) at 64 Seabring Street. They also offer tours and classes, which I haven’t had a chance to try, but which are both at the top of my weekend to-do list.

(By the way: If you’re interested in reading more about Raaka’s mission and methods, check out this article from Edible Brooklyn.)

Tagged , , , , ,
← Older posts
Newer posts →