random poll

[ratcreature]

Most people think chocolate and nuts go well together, but which nut do you think fits chocolate best? (Today when I decided to buy some chocolate with nuts I dithered for minutes in front of the shelf over whether I ought to go with hazelnut or almond chocolate this time.)

I realize radio buttons make this hard when like me you like many nuts in chocolate, but you'll just have to pick a favorite. (Feel free to imagine the chocolate however you like it to best compliment the nuts, i.e. if you like for example hazelnuts best in milk chocolate but almonds in dark chocolate, imagine the combination you like better and then pick the kind of nut in the poll.)

Poll #6193 chocolate & nuts

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 51

View Respondents

Which nut do you like best with chocolate?

View Answers

None: Who would contaminate tasty chocolate with any nut?? (or nuts with chocolate)
5 (9.8%)

Hazelnuts
21 (41.2%)

Almonds
16 (31.4%)

Walnuts
1 (2.0%)

Pecans
2 (3.9%)

Macadamia
2 (3.9%)

Cashew
2 (3.9%)

Brazil nuts
0 (0.0%)

Pistachios
0 (0.0%)

Peanuts (counted as "nut" for the purposes of this poll despite being an undercover legume)
2 (3.9%)

some other nut you have forgotten
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[herlander_refugee]

I can't actually eat any tree nuts any more due to allergies, but my former favorite was how I voted!

[ratcreature]

Food allergies and intolerances can be really depressing.

[herlander_refugee]

Yes, very, lol. But I keep in in context---there are still many good things I can eat. And having anything to eat at all puts me in a charmed category in today's world.

[ratcreature]

True. The most depressing intolerances I've encountered was an acquaintance who was not only allergic to both milk and wheat, but also intolerant to fructose on top of that, which I hadn't even thought possible. I mean, how can you not tolerate a sugar? But they had some sort of bowel disorder, couldn't absorb it properly and thus had all sorts of digestive problems from eating *fruit*, so that had to be avoided too. That seemed really horrible to me.

[herlander_refugee]

I have a long list, wheat is not there yet, but barley IS, dammit. Beer is made of barley, for pity's sake! Most common fruits get me, all nightshade veggies, most dairy, all shellfish, and some legumes.

It is a pain in the ass.

[omens]

i was really temped to choose macadamia, but that is not an everyday treat ;)

[ratcreature]

Yes, that is very true. I actually waffled towards macadamia too, but while I like them a lot, in sweets I actually like them most complimented with ice cream, similarly how I like walnuts best with something syrupy or with honey. In the end I picked hazelnuts (though today I actually chose almond chocolate) because while I don't like them all that much plain, but they go really well with chocolate.

[kiratael]

I chose hazelnuts because it's the only nut I can stand besides cashews and chocolate is what makes it work. I have never had/seen cashews and chocolate combined - time to experiment/explore!

[ratcreature]

I don't think I've ever seen cashews in chocolate bars outside of specialty shops, but chocolate covered cashews are slightly more common. Still rare in supermarkets though. And unfortunately my budget doesn't accommodate expensive chocolates even semi-regularly (even though there is a chocolate specialty store though just a bit down my block and I pass by their window whenever I walk to the drug store :( ).

[sholio]

I don't actually buy chocolate-covered cashews (they're almost impossible to find) but a small handful of cashews plus a square or two of dark chocolate is my Favorite Thing Ever. :D

[sanj]

My very favorites are Green & Black's chocolate with almonds, and Trader Joes' chocolate-covered almonds with sea salt, so almonds are ahead of peanuts, pecans, and hazelnuts by just a titch.

But mmmm. Chocolate with nuts may be my favorite way to eat both foods. :)

[ratcreature]

I don't think I've ever had something with chocolate and salt. I think that combination is uncommon here. Maybe more a specialty thing, much like chili in chocolate (which I was surprised to like when I tried, though not a real favorite).

[sanj]

Oh, man. Dark but not crazy-dark chocolate, with just a little bit of sea salt or similar, is nature's perfect food. Especially if you're having your period. :)

[reginagiraffe]

I said cashews, but hazelnuts or almonds would be equally acceptable.

[ratcreature]

Hee. Yes, I wouldn't turn down any of these either.

[busaikko]

In Japan, almonds are the most common nut in sweets; in the US peanuts are, I think. The chocolate used for American peanut candy is *incredibly* (mostly intolerably) sweet (Mr Goodbar, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups). So I prefer almonds, which in Japan are usually in more 'elegant' chocolates and a more adult taste *g* (Macadamia chocolates are also sold here, but macadamia nuts are kind of... weird *no accounting for taste*)

[ratcreature]

Here hazelnuts are the most common in plain chocolate, almonds second, and peanuts are somewhat unusual in chocolate except in candy bars (like Snickers or the like) or peanuts covered in cheap chocolate (other nuts tend to be covered in more and better chocolate, somehow peanuts tend to be the cheaper ones). Macadamia are quite expensive here, so they are usually only used in special chocolates. The only standard chocolate thing I've seen with macadamia was the Lindt christmas-spiced chocolate nuts which usually are almonds, but they offer macadamia too sometimes. And even those nuts are not exactly low-priced, more the upper range of supermarket candy.

[some_stars]

I seriously could not ever decide. Milk chocolate and hazelnuts, dark chocolate and almonds, chocolate fudge with walnuts...they are all ESSENTIAL TO MY SURVIVAL. All of them.

[ratcreature]

I've actually never quite understood what this "chocolate fudge" I keep hearing about is. I gather it is something soft and gooey yet from chocolate? AFAIK this does not exist here. I mean, I know of the regular fudge made from sugar, butter and cream, though I don't much like that sweet, and the soft rather than hard toffee version is not all that common here (I actually can't remember ever having eaten any myself either), but I'm not sure how chocolate is added into it. As cocoa powder?

[some_stars]

I've never actually made it, but from looking at some recipes it seems to be, generally: baking chocolate, sugar, milk or cream in some combination, butter, and corn syrup(but like, actual corn syrup, not HFCS). Or some recipes don't use the syrup, but have you cook the sugar to the soft-ball stage. Finished fudge is firm--it's sold in slices or squares--but not chewy, it just melts in your mouth. It's very sweet, and very rich, and the best thing ever.

[ratcreature]

I don't like extremely sweet things. One of the reasons I'm not fond of toffee. So I'm not sure I'd take to fudge, if it was sweeter than plain chocolate.

[laurajv]

It is. I love fudge, but can barely eat it because it's so sweet. So it's like "YUM FUDGE" *tiny nibble*

[laurajv]

answering this poll took consulting my husband and arguing the merits of various chocolate-nut combos for several minutes, after which we agreed that Cote d'Or "Noir Noisettes" is the best chocolate-nut combination on the entire planet, and therefore the answer had to be "hazelnut".

(The runner-up was "almond", by the by; nothing else was even in the running.)

[ratcreature]

Hard choices to be made for this poll, certainly.

The results make me wonder though, why the peanuts-chocolate combination is idiomatic in the US, when it is not that popular compared to others. I had always sort of assumed that US people must like peanuts mixed with chocolate like hazelnuts are liked here, and yet it is not so.

[laurajv]

Peanuts are much cheaper here. I just looked up wholesale prices, and shelled roasted peanuts are less than half the price of shelled roasted almonds, and about a quarter of the price of shelled roasted hazelnuts. So they're put in all cheap chocolate, basically.

[ratcreature]

It's true here as well that peanuts are cheaper, though almonds are not that much cheaper than hazelnuts, but that doesn't make people like peanuts in chocolate any better. Even the very cheap, crappy chocolate bars for 0.35€/100g come with hazelnut pieces rather than peanuts. Only candy bars and M&M-like things seem to have peanuts in them.

[laurajv]

mostly that's what you get here, too: mass market candy bars with peanuts or peanut butter, or M&Ms. There's not much by way of good chocolate with peanuts in it -- it's just that there is SO MUCH chocolate with peanuts in it here that it gives the impression of great popularity, and...a lot of people don't have access to good chocolate, either.

Like, there are a lot of urban neighborhoods with extremely limited access to fresh food, and those neighborhoods have equally limited access to good chocolate.

[ratcreature]

I never quite understood how this lack of adequate grocery stores some urban areas in the US could happen. Here the problem with easy access to shopping and services is a rural one, because there are many fewer people so that a store can't get enough customers, and people end up needing cars for everything and life sucks if you don't have one. But in urban neighborhoods there are a lot of people after all, all of whom need food and want to buy it somewhere. Depending on the neighborhood here you may lack fancy choices, like butchers (many of those have gone out of business) or fishmongers (ditto) or other special stores, but I think it's rare to encounter an urban neighborhood so blighted that there isn't at least a discounter with a basic range of staples and the common fresh vegetables in a distance most people can walk with a couple of grocery bags.

[lilacsigil]

I chose hazelnut only because it was the most recent that I have eaten. But if anyone wants to send me other kinds in an attempt to switch my vote, I would be very happy!

[ratcreature]

Heh. Yes, I'm sure it would be best decided after an extensive sampling.

Easy!

[tazlet]

Trader's Joe's (our 'officially' Second Best Grocery store chain) sells a 30% hazelnut/milk chocolate bar, which is to die for.

Re: Easy!

[ratcreature]

My main quibble with hazelnut-chocolate bars here is that most seem to prefer the hazelnuts whole, while I prefer them in smaller pieces, but more evenly distributed in the chocolate.