Hot Monkey Nuts – Fromage a Trois
With the tagline of “got the guts? eat my nuts!” and the cheeky double-entendre in the name of this particular product it’s clear that Hot Monkey Nuts has a pretty slick marketing department and is going for an irreverent and fun vibe with their products and targeted clientele. According to their website the owner found purpose and happiness in his life by making his own hot nuts and creating this business instead of working a job that was causing mental health breakdowns, and as such the company donates part of their profits to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
I love cheesy snacks so the blend of parmesan, cheddar, and blue cheese sounded very appealing to me. Having recently found and loved Heat Hot Sauce Shop’s Habanero Umami seasoning which features habanero powder and nutritional yeast, two other ingredients in these, I was even more excited to try.
The aroma is that of standard cheesy nuts of snack mix, and the peanuts do look like they’re evenly coated. Hot Monkey Nuts rates these as medium heat, however I found them to be quite mild with a barely detectable amount of habanero flavor or heat. The bag lists three cheeses – cheddar, parmesan, and blue cheese, however the cheddar is the dominant flavor with perhaps a little bit of nuttiness from the parmesan, though that could also be the natural nuttiness of the nuts. I did not detect any of the characteristic funk and piquancy of blue cheese when it came to these.
On the positive side the natural peanut flavor does come through. I feel like the seasoning mix would have benefited from a stronger flavor, but it’s possible the company was going for something more reserved on that side so that the natural peanut flavor would shine, and it does. I personally would have made the blue cheese much more forward in the mix as well as possibly balanced it against some French cheeses to play off of the whole “fromage” thing, but these are still tasty, if not particularly exciting, as they are.
When it comes to a recommendation these taste good, and I can appreciate a small company doing something they love. At the same time I feel the price is a bit high for less than 8 oz of nuts when combined with the common flavor profile and lack of any real heat. I did purchase two other flavors from the company which I will try and will perhaps change my mind in terms of their value proposition.
Ingredients: Roasted Peanuts (peanuts, canola oil, salt), Peanut Oil, Cheddar Cheese Powder (Granular Cheese [Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes], Sodium Phosphate), Nutritional Yeast (inactive dry yeast, niacin (B3), pyridoxine hydrochloride (B6), riboflavin (B2), thiamin hydrochloride (B1), folic acid, cyanocobalamin (B12)), Parmesan Cheese ([Milk, Salt, Cultures, Enzymes], Disodium Phosphate), Garlic Powder, Buttermilk (sour cream powder [cream, cultures, lactic acid], cultured nonfat milk solids, citric acid), Blue Cheese Powder ([Milk, Salt, Cultures, Enzymes], Disodium Phosphate), Salt, Habanero Powder, Onion Powder, Black Pepper, Citric Acid
Heat Level: 1/10. These are very mild in heat, with little discernable pepper flavor
