Boy, was I glad to see my Azure drop cutoff date approaching. I was getting low on walnuts, and as a new Azure customer, was excited to see how theirs tasted. I already liked the fact that they are packed in a thick, tough, lined paper bag. More and more, packaging with the least amount of plastic is becoming a priority when I shop. I typically get my raw organic walnuts at any of the name-brand health food stores and sometimes online. Even though the taste is slightly bitter with the hull on, I still always buy non-hulled walnuts because I want all the antioxidants and nutrients possible; many of which are contained in the hull (or skin). For various reasons, I always soak and dehydrate walnuts, and that lessens the bitter flavor. No matter where I’ve ever gotten them from, walnuts have all been pretty similar in taste with diminished bitterness after soaking…until now.
As soon as I arrived home from my drop with those Azure raw organic walnuts, I got them in some water and settled in for the night with Netflix. Next morning: rinse, and in the dehydrator they went. About 5 hours later — BAM! What a surprise! The Azure walnuts had zero, yeah zero, bitter taste! I had popped one in my mouth right out of the bag the night before, and it had a wee bit of that hull bitterness. But that was to be expected without the soak. What I didn't expect was for them to be 100% bitter-free after the soak & dehydration. I was stoked! Before soaking, the Azure walnuts had a good, strong walnut flavor and a bit of crispiness. After the soak & dehydration, they still had the walnut flavor, but they gave a more creamy and meaty mouthfeel.
Several times a week, I break up soaked & dehydrated walnuts into a delicious goat cheese, blueberry, and walnut salad with my homemade raspberry vinaigrette. Usually when I do this, some little hull flakes end up flying off, causing small peels of skin to be mixed throughout the salad. No big deal, except those flakes are the bitter part, and sometimes it’s unpleasant to get some in a forkful that doesn’t also include a piece of walnut in it. I don’t really have to worry about that with the Azure walnuts because, as mentioned, the bitterness was gone. I also believe the soaking step kept the flaking from happening. As I broke the soaked and dehydrated Azure walnuts into my salad, they crumbled up clean, with each piece still holding its skin! I’m overjoyed that the Azure walnuts exceeded my expectations. Now I have creamy, meaty, non-bitter nut salads with all the nutrients, good fats, and walnutty flavor that a perfectly balanced salad can deliver!