Looking for means to add more good fats to my daily food fare and to reduce the bad fats, I began eating these Blue Diamond BOLD Habanero BBQ Almonds here and there. They’re chewy yet crispy with their rather salty and warm biased barbecue flavor. You cannot easily swallow these barbecu flavored nuts without first and thoroughly chewing them up, and this makes them more satisfying to me. Nor are these almonds either wimpy-limpy or monotonous-tasting. Indeed, they may be a healthier, closer-to-nature food than, say, pretzels or cupcakes. Though the flavoring has some man-made ingredients, the almonds themselves are nonetheless a whole food. Thus, this treat is more naturally nutritious than more refined flour-based snacks.
Benefits, Features, Advantages, and Pros
- Almonds in this product are indeed similar in flavor, texture, hue, and girth. I’ve rarely if ever spotted burnt or otherwise deformed almonds in the cans. Yes, Blue Diamond has certainly led the food industry toward more consistently visually appealing as well as good-tasting nuts like these. They give you get medium-sized, medium-brown almonds every time, without the white spots that frequently dot bulk raw almonds.
- This club treat contains just three grams of net carbs per 28-almond serving (approximately one ounce).
- The barbecue flavor is subtle and they went easy on the heat (habanero). So while I’d agree that the flavor of this product is indeed bold, it is however, less bold than the wasabi and soy sauce almonds (one of the other flavors offered in Blue Diamond’s bold line of canned almonds).
- While these BBQ almonds contain 15 grams of fat and 170 calories per serving, they have no added saturated fats to speak of. Much of the total fat in this product occurs naturally in almonds.
- Eating reasonable amounts of this snack (1.5 ounces per day according to the can), science suggests, may reduce your chances of acquiring cardiovascular diseases like heart and peripheral artery diseases.
- This product keeps in your pantry for years. In fact, the “best by” date stamped on the bottom of the can is approximately two and a half years out from the day I bought the can. So if you’re assembling a fallout shelter, be sure to stock it with some of these Blue Diamond Bold Almonds.
- This product is produced in California, which makes it an American, home-grown snack food.
- No can opener is required to gain access to the contents of this can, as it’s equipped with a ring and pull-top lid. So, you can quickly dig into them as soon as you leave the store.
Disadvantages, Cons, Problems, and Concerns
- They add vegetable oil, that also contributes to the fat grams tally. However, the included oils such as canola, safflower, and sunflower, have little of the so-called bad fats (saturated or trans), and brim with the good fats (mono- and polyunsaturated fats).
- They also add maltodextrin (a man-made form of sugar), malic acid, and molasses. I’d prefer that these compounds be omitted to get an even healthier snack food.
- Added salt is found in these BBQ almonds, to the tune of 115 MG of sodium per serving. But as stated above, a serving of this snack is not very big. Indeed, by the time I eat my two or three official helpings for decent satisfaction, I get 345 MG of sodium. I dream of an almond product that has no added salt; one that I could eat with less worry about over indulging.
- What the Blue Diamond Almond People call a serving of these nuts is quite minuscule for my appetite (one ounce or around 28 almonds). There are six servings per can. But I must eat a third to a half of a can to be satiated. So it’s wise to avoid snacking on this product all by itself in a sitting. But with that said, I need far less almonds to become filled up (in terms of weight) than I would potato chips, cheese corn curls, and so on. A little bit of almonds goes a much longer way than does a like amount of refined snack foods.
Our Rating
In closing then, on the whole, I’d recommend Blue Diamond BOLD Habanero BBQ Almonds as a mid-afternoon work intermission food, as they have relatively few net carbs. So they’ll likely produce those two-thirty PM blues far less than pop or candy. They’ll efficiently curb your appetite. They’re priced reasonably, and their zingy flavor somewhat cancels out my negative impressions of this snack food due to all the chemical additives. So I’d rate this product at an 87 out of 100.
Where To Buy Blue Diamond BOLD Habanero BBQ Almonds
Look for this product in the orange can with the blue snap-off lid at your favorite larger grocery outlets and online ships. They’ll leave your mouth wanting for nothing else. Enjoy.
References
Revision History
- : Moved this post to the Tom’s Diet Quest blog, added whitespace, adjusted ad placement, and tweaked the content.
- 2011-04-18: Originally published.