This Editor-Favorite Snack Brand Just Released an Elegant Nut Mix That’s Perfect for Holiday Hosting
Because I arrived at Kitchn from a background in restaurant work, I view my job here as a quest to make every reader’s time cooking, eating, organizing, and sharing snacks more enjoyable. Although I’m well versed in the task of making a perfect, restaurant-worthy dish, since retiring from professional cooking, I find myself more invested in the tools, ingredients, and processes that make home cooking easy, sustainable, and fun. In my opinion, the best part about sharing my favorite kitchen essentials is getting to know the origin stories behind the beloved brands.
One the most inspiring backstories I’ve come across thus far is the story of how Get Golden came to be. Get Golden, the makers behind my all-time favorite caramel-y, chewy, delicious snack bars (you’ll never find me without one in my purse), is founded by a New York City Ballet ballerina, Jenelle Manzi. She set out to create a snack that provided her — as both an athlete and a food-lover — with the sustenance and satisfaction she couldn’t seem to find in any of the snack bars already on the market. Now, inspired by a childhood memory, she’s released a limited-edition holiday classic that I seriously can’t stop snacking on.
Far from the stale nut mix at Grandma’s you may have regretted tasting as a child, this Holiday Nut Mix is deep, complex, sweet, salty, multi-textured, and pretty dang hard to quit. Funnily enough, this mix is the product of the experience that founder Jenelle had as a child going to the Nutcracker with her grandmother and eating intermission snacks. (I wish my grandma had been friends with hers!)
Like the Get Golden Classic Caramel bar, this nut mix uses the brand’s signature turmeric coconut caramel to achieve a sweet, almost umami taste, and an unparalleled texture. The mix is clustered, almost similar to a good granola, and it’s not hard to fish out a crunchy chunk of nuts, seeds, and coconut. The larger nuts — almonds, pecans and cashews — are bound together with the bright, salted caramel, large coconut shreds, pepitas, and sesame seeds. Now, if you ask me, the addition of sesame seeds is a genius move in a snack mix because it gives the medley a nutty, almost savory element, resulting in a flavor dynamism that keeps your reaching back for another handful.
Now, I’m making the attempt to leave this gorgeous mix out when company is over. But, if I’m completely honest, I don’t know how long it’s going to last, since I’m eating the stuff at an alarmingly fast rate. (I might just buy a couple of boxes to bring along with me as gifts as I attend various holiday gatherings in the next couple of weeks.) Because this box of goodness is a limited edition, it’s not going to be around forever, so I’m going to take my own advice and order more than one pronto. I mean, not only do I want to be sure that I’ll get the snacks in time for the holidays, I also want to secure the bag before it sells out. I mean, with this stuff in tow, I’m bound to be the most popular guest of the season!
Buy: Holiday Nut Mix, $28