TanTan – Spicy Garlic Peanuts (Đậu Phộng Tỏi Ớt)

Bitter: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Salty: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰

Sour/Tangy: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Sweet: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰

Umami: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰

Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰

Quick Flavor Notes: Garlic, sweet, peanuts

Recommended: Yes

Texture: Crunchy and glazed

Ingredients: Peanuts (65%), garlic (12.5%), refined sugar, chili (3.5%). vegetable oil, sesame, salt, flavor enhancers (627, 631)

These TanTan spicy garlic peanuts are another snack I discovered recently while perusing through a Vietnamese grocery store in my area. I’ve always enjoyed having some flavored peanuts to snack on at work and spicy garlic is always a welcome flavor profile. TanTan as a company appears to make a variety of Vietnamese snacks and condiments such as fish sauce and hoisin sauce.

TanTan isn’t kidding about the garlic element in these at least, with the ingredients label indicating that these are 12.5% garlic by weight, that’s a lot of garlic. With 3.5% chili these could potentially be a little bit of a kick here. Asian snacks oftentimes like to incorporate sugar into savory foods and that’s the case here as well with refined sugar making the ingredients list, but at least it’s not high fructose corn syrup. Sesame is there for aroma and flavor and two flavor enhancers, 627 and 631, which translate into disodium guanylate and disodium inosinate respectively. These are both secondary glutamates that can enhance the umami effects of MSG, something they’re often paired with. It’s a bit interesting to see them listed without MSG in these.

The first thing I noticed about the flavor of these is that they are extremely garlicky. There’s not only the dried and roasted mellow garlic flavor but also a pronounced fresh garlic bite that I have no idea how they’re getting into a dried product but it’s something I love about these. Next is that they do have a very noticeably sweetness. The sugar in these becomes a glaze that helps the garlic and chiles adhere to the peanuts. It also adds a bit of extra crunch. In the past I’ve taken issue with sweet garlic flavored hot sauces but with the lack of vinegar in these somehow the sugar and garlic go well together. There’s also a noticeable amount of heat. They won’t be spicy to chile-head by any means, but the heat at least approaches the level of a mild hot sauce and is considerably spicier than the Vietnamese Fried Rice Balls with Spicy Garlic Flavor I opened earlier in the week. The peanuts themselves are small but fresh with a good peanut flavor beneath the garlic-chile-sugar glaze. 50Hertz still takes the crown with their Tingly Peanuts for peanut quality but these are fresh and I even heard a pop and whoosh as I opened the (metal) freshness seal on these. The disodium guanylate and inosinate also do their jobs and these do have a very satisfying savory umami quality which helps balance the sweetness from the sugar.

These get my recommendation, especially if you’re a garlic lover, these are about the most garlicky peanuts I’ve ever tasted, and the nice thing about the sugar glaze is there’s no powder gunk that gets on your fingers as you eat them. If you love peanuts and garlic these are a must try.