Asher's Nuts is different from most chocolate spreads because it starts with nuts, not sugar. Dark Cocoa + Sea Salt is a macadamia and walnut butter made with 8 ingredients: two nuts, 70% dark chocolate, raw honey, desiccated coconut, Madagascar vanilla, Ceylon cinnamon and sea salt. It has about 3 g of sugar per 2 tablespoons, and no palm oil.
What is actually in a jar of Asher's Nuts?
Eight ingredients, listed here by weight from most to least.
- Macadamias: the creamy, buttery base.
- Walnuts: toasty depth and plant omega-3s.
- Dark chocolate: 70% cacao, made from organic chocolate liquor, organic cane sugar and organic cocoa butter, with no soy lecithin or emulsifiers.
- Raw honey: a small amount to round off the bitterness.
- Desiccated coconut: body and a soft, natural sweetness.
- Madagascar vanilla extract: real vanilla, not vanillin.
- Ceylon cinnamon: warmth sitting under the cocoa.
- Sea salt: it makes everything else taste more like itself.
That's the whole list. You won't find palm oil, seed oils, emulsifiers, stabilizers or gums. Think of it as a roster where every player has a job, and we'll introduce each of them below.
Why build a chocolate spread on two nuts instead of one?
Because macadamias and walnuts cover each other's weak spots. Macadamias grind into something smooth and buttery, with a mild flavor that stays out of the way. Walnuts bring a toasted, slightly bitter edge that stops the blend from tasting flat. If you only used macadamias, you'd get a rich spread with not much going on. If you only used walnuts, it would turn sharp. Put them together and you get a spread that's creamy, with something to chew on flavor-wise.
The walnuts also do some nutritional work. They're the reason one serving has about 1.1 g of plant omega-3 ALA. Read more in Meet the Team: Macadamias and Meet the Team: Walnuts. If you're new to this kind of spread, start with what macadamia nut butter is.
How is it different from Nutella?
The biggest difference is what the jar is mostly made of. On the US label, Nutella lists sugar first and palm oil second, and it has 21 g of sugar per 2 tablespoons (37 g). Compare the same 32 g weight and that comes to roughly 18 g of sugar for Nutella and about 3 g for Asher's Nuts, which is about 80% less. Nutella also contains skim milk, soy lecithin and vanillin. We use real vanilla extract and skip the emulsifier.
Nutella is a great product, and plenty of people grew up on it. Ours is simply built a different way. The full side-by-side is in our Nutella alternative guide, and the sugar math is laid out in low-sugar chocolate spread.
Where does the sweetness come from?
A little raw honey and the cane sugar in the 70% dark chocolate. One 2-tablespoon serving has about 3 g of total sugars, and about 2 g of that is added sugar. Desiccated coconut and real vanilla make it taste sweeter than those numbers suggest. Salt does its part too, because it softens the cocoa's bitterness. See Meet the Team: Raw Honey.
Why no palm oil, emulsifiers or stabilizers?
We don't need them. Macadamias are mostly fat, so once they're ground, the blend turns spreadable on its own. Most commercial spreads add emulsifiers and stabilizers so the oil never separates. Ours can separate, especially in a warm kitchen. If you see a layer of oil on top, that's the nuts' own oil. Stir it back in. The coconut helps hold everything together, which you can read about in Meet the Team: Coconut.
Who makes it, and how?
Asher makes it by hand in small batches in San Francisco. It started when he was eating peanut butter every day and, in his words, "my gut was a disaster." One weekend he bought a food processor, macadamias and walnuts. He ate the first jar in three days and still grinds it the same way. The longer version is on our About page.
What does it taste like?
Like a dark chocolate truffle that's been spread on toast. You get cocoa up front, with buttery macadamia underneath. Walnut and cinnamon add a toasty warmth, and it finishes with a hit of salt. It isn't candy-sweet, and that's on purpose. The bitterness of the 70% dark chocolate gets rounded out by Madagascar vanilla, Ceylon cinnamon and sea salt.
Quick facts
- One flavor: Dark Cocoa + Sea Salt macadamia and walnut butter
- 8 ingredients, no palm oil, seed oils, emulsifiers or gums
- Per 2 tbsp (32 g): about 3 g sugar, 2 g fiber, 3 g protein, 1.1 g plant omega-3 ALA
- Also about 47% DV manganese and 43% DV copper per serving
- 8 oz (227 g) jar, $18, 2-jar minimum, free shipping on orders of $65 or more
- Made by hand in San Francisco and shipped USPS Priority
FAQ
Is Asher's Nuts a nut butter or a chocolate spread?
Both. Nuts make up most of the jar, so it's a nut butter by weight. It tastes and spreads like a dark chocolate spread.
Does it contain peanuts, dairy or soy?
No. It contains tree nuts (macadamia and walnut). The facility handles macadamia, walnut, cashew and coconut, and it has no peanuts, soy, dairy or gluten.
Do I need to refrigerate it?
We recommend it, but you don't have to. An opened jar keeps 2–3 months in the pantry or 6–12 months in the fridge. An unopened jar lasts about a year.
Why does my jar have oil on top?
It has no emulsifiers, so the natural nut oil can rise to the top. Stir it back in before you scoop.
How do people eat it?
Dip strawberries in it, put it on ice cream, spread it on toast, swirl it into yogurt, or eat it straight off the spoon.