Product Review

Wonderful Pistachios | Wonderful Almonds

I have received these products free of charge with a request to review them on my blog.  This is an honest product review and reflects my opinion (and those of my family members, who have also sampled the products).  I did not receive any payment in exchange for the review.

It felt like Christmas this morning when, having accepted the request to review ‘Wonderful Pistachios’ and ‘Wonderful Almonds’ a few days ago, a packet arrived in the post with a selection of packs of these delicious snacks.

I received three packs of Wonderful Pistachios: No Salt, Salt & Pepper and Sweet Chili.

We are very fond of pistachios in our house so my daughters and husband descended upon these goodies like gannets! I would like to say I showed more restraint, but I was so excited and keen to tuck in that I only just remembered to take photos of the packs first.

I didn’t expect to like the ‘No Salt’ variety as I am a bit of a salt fiend, but these surprised me.  They were beautifully roasted, the delicious natural flavour of pistachio being allowed to shine.  No need for additional seasoning here.

The ‘Salt & Pepper’ variety was quite peppery.  I liked the flavour as I am fond of black pepper, but my youngest daughter found it a bit too strong – this didn’t stop her from devouring nearly half the packet in no time though! I did find that the pepper ran the risk of overpowering the natural pistachio flavour a little, but loved the fact that it was a different take on pistachios than the usual salted varieties you find in the shops.

The ‘Sweet Chili’ variety was the most surprising.  I wasn’t sure whether sweet chilli would work with pistachios.  Would the flavour completely mask the taste of the naturally delicate and sweet pistachio nut?  I didn’t think so, although my husband felt that the chilli did over-power the natural almond flavour a little.  He did, however, still enjoy them.  They were delicious.  On a very picky note…why ‘chili’ with just one ‘L’?

The packs I was sent were a good size at 150g – more than enough for four of us to graze on during the course of the day.

The ‘No Salt’ and ‘Salt & Pepper’ varieties are available in 150g, 250g and 500g packs.  The ‘Sweet Chili’ variety is available in 150g and 250g packs.

Additionally, Wonderful Pistachios are also available in ‘Roasted & Salted’ variety, but I did not receive these to sample.

Wonderful Pistachios are currently available in the UK at Waitrose, Ocado, Julian Graves, Holland & Barrett, Tesco and Sainsbury’s.  At £3.59 for a 250g bag (Ocado), I feel these are good value and priced at a comparable level to other pistachio products on the market.

I also received two packs of Wonderful Almonds, both in ‘Roasted Salted’ flavour.

These came in 200g bags – a very generous amount as there are only so many Almonds I can eat in one sitting.

Information on Wonderful Almonds is more limited online and as far as I can ascertain, they are currently only available from Ocado (£3.25 for a 200g bag).  They are also shown on the brand website as being available in ‘Raw Natural’ and ‘Blanched’ varieties, though I haven’t sampled these.

I generally prefer Almonds in a sweet setting, e.g. honey-roast, so would probably not go out and buy these to snack on.  Having said that, they were very tasty.  The salt was well-balanced in order not to over-power the natural almond flavour.  The roasting was perfect and maintained the delicious sweetness of the almond inside.

If you are fond of Almonds, I would definitely recommend trying these as an alternative to sweet ones, especially if you are looking for a different nutty snack to offer for nibbles at a party, for example.

Overall, I enjoyed all the products I sampled in the ‘Wonderful Pistachios’ and ‘Wonderful Almonds’ ranges.  My personal preference is for the pistachios, particularly the ‘Sweet Chili’ variety.  Having only ever eaten salted pistachios previously and being a huge fan of pistachios anyway, it was great to discover different flavours that I wouldn’t have associated with pistachios before.  I will definitely be buying these again!