Last week I wrote in black distress that I hadn't seen Planters Salt & Vinegar cashews for some time and feared that they had been discontinued. Much to my delight they were back on the shelf at my local supermarket last weekend. Now that I think about it, I should have bought more than one bag as who knows how long before they go missing again?
I tried to find out how many varieties of cashews there are and all I could come up with was one. Many different grades of cashews but I found no evidence of multiple varieties. Perhaps I need to hit up some hardcore botany sites.
On the other hand, I learned that the cashew originated somewhere in the Amazon region, although it has since spread, and that it looks like this when still attached to a tree:
The nuts hang from this apple fruit bit. The apples can be used for cooking or made into vinegar or booze, presumably. Cashews are cousins of poison ivy and the shells around the nuts are poisonous. Picking and processing these things must be a pain.
Eating them, however, is painless.
These puppies were rather lightly seasoned. If you pop just 1 or 2 in your mouth, you get that luscious sweet-fatty taste of the cashew and a lingering sense that something is different. I didn't taste much more saltiness but you do get a hint of vinegar tang. It was only when I put several in my mouth at once did my tongue get something approaching a healthy dose of acetic acid.
I suppose Planters has a fine line to tread here. When appealing to a broad audience, one nut shouldn't be super-sour tasting and, since many people eat several at once - something approaching a handful - that approach shouldn't be deadly.
As someone who loves vinegar, I found these cashews to be on the mild side. Having said that, they were plenty tasty. When I needed something more potent, I ate about half a dozen at once to get that tanginess level up to where I like it.
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