I do like a good bag of nuts.
An instantaneous and random top ten list of nuts :
NUTS: : : RANKED !!
(world war 3 is probably imminent, so let’s just do favourite nut lists instead !!! )
My own:
1.PEANUTS = MACADAMIA
3. HAZELNUTS (with chocolate, in noisette, gianduja, praline, oh my god)
4. CASHEW
5. WALNUT
6. ALMOND
7. PISTACHIO
8. PECAN
9.CHESTNUT
10. BRAZIL ( not entirely keen; sometimes they can feel more like eating a tusk)
Pistachios I do like, although I find them very irritatingly fiddly with my ungraceful thumbs when I am trying to crack open the shell : the reward sometimes doesn’t seem enough for the sheer effort that is required. Ready shelled, I think they are rather delicious, but they still don’t quite take me to the heights that the lowly peanut does, or the recently discovered unsalted macadamias from the supermarket across the road from work which I eat on a regular basis and which are sublime (and extremely healthy to boot: what’s not to like when all these nuts are all superfoods, massive in antioxidants and nutrients and minerals and cholesterol lowering substances etc etc : I feel sorry for those, like my neighbour’s ten year old son Kodai, who has a very serious nut allergy and has to carry around one of those antidote pens in case some nut fragment or other has made its way into another product: what is an occasional guilty pleasure for me – a Snickers – is for someone else a loaded Kalashnikov).
No, I am lucky in that nuts, physiologically, suit me perfectly. What can give me a mild to severe anaphylactic reaction though, is an overly clever clever perfume concept such ‘THIS IS OBVIOUS’. I am pretty damn allergic to very self-consciously meta or overly groovy marketing, which makes my eyes roll to the extent that they could get stuck facing upwards. I can just see all the entrepreneurs now with their Agnès B jumpers loped gently around their light blue-shirted shoulders sat round in loafers in their Parisian conference room, slapping their thighs with delight as one of them comes up with this little tagline, some kind of oui, mais oui! , ‘witty’ sub-Magritte-like statement of fact: une obvious vanille, etc, ho ho ho ! ! — although I can see how the lame and the simplistic, wanting something to grab them on the continuously multiplying shelves (like me, for example: after all, this did draw my attention among a million other perfumes in Shinjuku Isetan Men’s the other night) might think the whole package is pretty funny, pretty neat - or maybe it really just does sound better in French.
(Gripe over).
Looking more closely at the brand’s ethos and product statement for a minute, the idea behind This Is Obvious, on nearer inspection, is not quite as grating nor……. obvious. You might even take it as simply being a much needed backlash against fanciful over-elaboration.
Mmmm.
Plus I do actually quite like single note-oriented perfumes in general when it comes to niche: a fig, musk, orange blossom, rose, vanilla… when you can just reach for the juice you are in the mood for that day, just something easy – and this perfume is certainly agreeable. With a cardamom, carrot seed , Tunisian neroli, heliotrope and imaginary ‘pistachio’ accord at the centre, over a (f****** obvious, if you ask me) cashmeran and synthetic sandalwood musk base – you always knew where this was going, olfactorily, that it was going to court the Santal 33 crowd) – overall, Une Obvious Pistache is not a bad little perfume at all as nut-centric scents go. Perfectly pleasant. Smooth. Soothing to overwrought nerves. When it’s cold outside, and the world is close to annihilation, what’s wrong with just getting the latte machine going and reaching out for a little semi-amusing nutted comfort?
Yes. Une Pistache Obvious is light and creamy, and will put the sweet-toothed in a temporarily good mood. I quite like the corked flacon, the general look. I am not sure how truly pistachio-ish it really is, though, in truth: I find in general, this is quite a difficult note to pin down in perfumery. I got glimpses of pistachio, fleetingly, but not quite enough to take me back to my ultimate pistachio memory, which was the first time I ever tasted them on a family holiday in France, on the coast, an evening at twilight by a harbour, the well to do strolling along sun-kissed and contented, where I surveyed the amazing array of saveurs available on the dashboard outside the kiosk, so many of which I had not even heard of before, used, as I was, to the far more limited English seaside town options of orange ice lols and nut-sprinkled cornettos.
Would I choose framboise; amaretto, cassis or caramel beurre salé? Fraise ? I pondered, in a quandary. No, finally lured by the beautiful colour – not mint, but a new colour, pistache- I thought I would try the (for me) highly unusual light-green ice cream, not knowing at all what to expect. And I remember walking along the promenade as though in a dream, licking the ice cream cone delicately; thinking, at that moment, in my stripey francophile marinère t- shirt and floppy hair, that I was possibly the coolest seventeen year old in the whole world. Wow, look at me. This is delicious. I’m eating French, pistachio, ice cream….
1. Pecans – utterly buttery loveliness, raw, toasted, in a praline, pie, or a shortbread biscuit yum!
2. Pistachios- love their fiddliness! Salty shells and rosy jackets, brilliant green rich and refined. Brilliant paired with saffron in sweet or savory dishes.
3. Cashew- another buttery delight, slightly sweet delicate and almost creamy, also fabulous paired with saffron
4. Peanuts- the classic American nut but really a legume, a bit mealy and oily but best in sweet and salty treats like Snickers
5. Walnut- slightly bitter due to high tannin content but rich, their brown and contorted skins get stuck in the teeth, I make a shortbread biscuit pairing cardamom and walnut (divine combination) also wondrous in pralines
6. Macadamia- buttery loveliness, expensive though. I do an oatmeal biscuit with macadamias, golden syrup and toasted coconut that’s amazing.
7. Marcona almonds- sweeter and crunchier than regular almonds, kind of a cross between almonds and peanuts, best in candies
8. Hazelnuts- I guess you need to be European to appreciate their delicate flavor, always seem off and veering rancid to me
9.Chestnut- mealy, grainy, slightly sweet nuttiness, love the way the Swiss use them in their Vermicelles
10. Brazil- very oily, I think that why they frequently taste rancid
I’m with you on the overly cutesy gimmicky names. Still seems to be popular with Millennials tho.
The scent sounds interesting, but also following the Le Labo / Millennial trend of naming a perfume something it isn’t- ie a one note fragrance that’s really multiple notes.
Just want to add to my tirade:
You have not lived until you’ve had Sicilian pistachios!
Then I shall have to.
Always wanted to go there actually.
NUT HEAVEN to read!
Thankee: this has me salivating, seriously
Pistachio is by far my favourite ice cream flavour! Nice and creamy, very very lightly salted, and please, I‘d actually rather not have any bits of pistachio nuts in the ice cream. Another highly recommended pistachio highlight: Iranian pistachios which are sold in many flavours—sour lemon and medicinal saffron flavoured ones are always delicious!
Now to perfumes: Just when I thought the très chic moment de pistache had given way to some new goût/clou—also that I might finally buy a cheap used bottle of the d.s.&durga variation on ebay—here comes a new one. The only pistachio scent I have ( a few testers) is the latest Hermès Jardin perfume which I find a bit weird.
That brings me to my last point: is it a tiny bit wayward if a 60 year old man smells of a sweet ice cream? Here in Germany we are celebrating Carneval at the moment (quite excessively in Cologne!), so I doused myself in something fitting: Bana Banana by L‘Artisan Parfumeur, smelling like bananas fried in butter and sugar… And still: isn‘t it a bit pathetic?
If it is, at least we are as one. SO good not to smell predictable.
I bet you smell quite bananas in bananas and turned a head or two x
PS. Medicinal saffron pistachios…..sound perturbing but kind of intriguing
Other than almonds, I haven’t found any nut fragrances I enjoy.
Now nuts to eat? Now you’re talking!
Almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, walnuts, pecans, peanuts, in fact I can’t think I’ve met a nut I don’t like. Oooh….. hold on I can. Macadamia nuts, like eating lard with less flavour. Same fat content too. Bleugh
Yes, I can understand the macadamia dislike, actually, but somehow I have come to love them.
I agree though, nuts on the plate, not on the skin (unless we are talking shea butter..)
Top ten nuts? For a minute I felt this was going in the same direction as your Vanilla Sex missive…
As you asked:
1. Pecan
2: Almond (particularly anything frangipaney)
3. Hazelnut (raw not so much, but hazelnut ice cream and liqueur are divine. And yes, Gianduja… my word, yes)
4. Walnut
5. Pistachio
6. Cashews
7. Peanuts (only to be eaten during term time as W is allergic)
8. Chestnut (makes gorgeous soup)
9. Brazil
10. Macadamia. Just no. (Do you know how many calories are in those blighters?)
Of those, almond is the only one I can do in perfume form. I only possess two: L’Amandiere (tiny sample about to run out) and lovely L’artisan Jour de Fete, which I no longer save for high days and holidays because, as you say, life is too short xx
I hadn’t quite realized about the calorific horror of the macadahmiah – shall have to watch it then as I eat them all the time!
more than 700 in 100g of them. I’m no calorie counter, and love fat, but this feels a tad extreme.
It does!
Ps I can’t imagine chestnut soup. Please do elaborate
Chestnut soup is gorgeous. With or without lentils. I make a Nigella one from her seminal work of the 90s, How to Eat. https://www.seriouseats.com/lentil-and-chestnut-soup-recipe Everyone likes it. You add chopped vacuum packed chestnuts, either posh French ones in a can, or whatever you can find. Or make a version without lentils, like this one: https://foolproofliving.com/chestnut-soup/. BN turns recipe swap. To paraphrase Nigel Slater, getting older is not all bad x
I do like the sound of this – shall investigate!
(although I have literally never used a recipe in my life: I can cook, but only ad libbing – that is always the way I have done it)
In the 90s, you would have opened yourself for some funny jokes. Not sure if I can repeat one here
I mean I did start the piece deliberately with ‘I do love a nice bag of nuts’ so please do go for it!
I love pistachios. And pistachio ice cream, although the cold really tones down the flavor.
true, actually – but possibly in a good way ?