This New $6 Nut-Free (!) Spread Tastes Just Like Nutella

Who among us hasn’t eaten a spoonful of sweet, nutty, and chocolatey, spread from the jar? I feel confident many of you already have. You’re reading this post after all. As a Nutella Fan (and all hazelnut chocolate spreads, really), you can imagine my shock (and skepticism) to hear about another such new spread gracing store shelves that is … get this … nut-free (!). Oh, what’s that? There’s no cocoa, either?! 

Nutella without the nuts … or chocolate, you say? I immediately got my hands on two jars (one nut-free, one nut-full) to see if it or I was being duped.

As its name strategically suggests, the hazelnut-free spread is a riff on sweetened hazelnut cocoa spreads (like Nutella). Ingredients many of us have come to expect to find in these products, mainly hazelnuts and cocoa, are absent in Voyage’s jars. Instead, they contain a blend of seeds (sunflower seed and grapeseed) and flours (sunflower and rice), plus sugar, palm oil, salt, and other natural flavors.

The 13-ounce jars are vegan, top-9 allergen friendly, gluten- and cocoa-free, and non-GMO project verified. Launched earlier this spring on Amazon, they’re hitting Walmart shelves this month (1500 to be exact!) and will soon be available to purchase directly online from the retailer.

I wanted to see how this roasted seed spread compared to the OG, so I grabbed a jar of both and got busy. A twist off of each lid reveals near-identical color and consistency. Voyage’s hazelnut-free spread has an ever so slightly lighter/reddish hue to its brown hue, and both have a similar thickness to shelf-stable peanut butter with their stick-to-the-knife quality. (I keep my jar in the fridge; for a looser, more saucy texture you can store it at room temperature).

To kick off the tasting portion, I grab two spoons and dove in. With zero mentions of cocoa-anything on the Voyage jar, I was surprised by its flavor, (as was my roommate, but more on that below), which reminds me of chocolate pudding. It also has a bit of lingering sunflower butter aftertaste — IYKYK and if you don’t, you very well may end up enjoying. While both spreads are capital-S Smooth, the Nutella is a bit silkier and sweeter (though both list sugar as their first ingredient). 

I also spread both on crescent dough to make one of my favorite lowest-of-low-lifts late-night snacks. After 15 minutes of rolling and baking them in the oven, and impatiently waiting for them to cool (another 10 minutes), I placed one of each on a plate for my roommate, also a big Nutella fan, to sample. (She knew there were two different fillings, but nothing else). Of course, I asked her to guess: “Which one is the hazelnut-free one?” 

After a second bite of each and a sip of water in between, she ended up choosing the one filled with Nutella. So in the end, she too was totally duped. 

Buy: Voyage Hazelnut-Free Spread, $5.99 for 13 ounces at Amazon

Have you tried this spread? Tell us about it in the comments below.