Tastemaker Seasonal Nut Butter Trio
This season’s Tastemaker is Joan Smith, Owner of Rancho Meladuco Date Farm in Newport Beach, CA. We’ve admired Joan’s work for years, and it’s an honor to collaborate with her on this trio of nut butters. Like us, Joan and her team believe that food choices matter, and that food should be good for everyone involved in producing (and eating) it. Rancho Meladuco dates, grown with traditional methods in the Coachella Valley of Southern California, reflect these values in their gorgeous appearance, caramely flavor, and soft, chewy texture.
Through her Newport Beach, CA, Date Shop and well-curated e-commerce site, Joan has been an important Big Spoon Roasters customer and advocate over the years, and she is confident that she has tasted nearly all our nut butter recipes. While she notes that her all-time favorites are Chai Spice, Fiji Ginger, and Toasted Coconut, she curated her Tastemaker Trio with her newest faves in mind! Joan said that these three nut butters are unique and interesting on their own and noted that they make an excellent combo as a stuffed date flight. We tried this trio in house with Rancho Meladuco dates and we agree – these pairings are out-of-this-world!
Joan’s Trio includes one 13oz jar, each, of the following nut butters. Her words about each follow in italics.
Carrot Cake Almond & Walnut Butter
This was a surprise hit! This nut butter paired with a caramely date literally tastes like real carrot cake. The nut butter is delicious and interesting on its own but paired with the sweet date it transforms the flavors into a bite of real carrot cake. So good! As a date/nut butter combination it’s a GREAT Easter play.
Crunchy Peanut Butter
To me, there’s nothing more classic and American than fresh roasted salted peanuts and this butter hits all the notes not only as a fresh tasting, pure classic peanut butter. As a bonus, it contains whole peanut halves which add such a nice texture and peanuty flavor boost. For this one we added a dollop to the dates with a big pinch of flakey salt to pop all the flavors. Not only is the crunchy peanut butter stuffed date the OG snack in our book, but this reminded me of a PayDay, one of my favorite candy bars. It was very good, not too sweet, and had classic, simple, clean flavors.
Tigerwalk Espresso Almond Butter
Dates and Coffee are an iconic pairing dating back thousands of years. The pairing is a traditional “break fast” start to the day for millions of people throughout the Middle East. The earthy, bright coffee is a great counterbalance to the sweet date. We love this combination! An espresso nut butter stuffed date is sophisticated and grown-up tasting, with an interesting crunch that is pleasing with the caramelly soft date.
Joan said that she loves this Trio so much as individuals, but also because they are all so different and each combination is really unlike the other. A pinch of extra salt really pops the flavors.