A few days ago, I had to run up the street to Walgreen’s to pick up some milk (they were having a sale and it was actually cheaper there than the grocery store). While there, I remembered I had been craving cashews and decided to check out what they had available.
Unlike the milk, the cashew brands they had available weren’t that attractive when it came to price. As a result, I ended up picking out the cheapest canister I could find; Walgreen’s Whole Cashews with Sea Salt.
I personally don’t fully understand this sea salt craze. But, after a short bout with high blood pressure, I have been trying to watch what I eat and figured the “healthier” salt would be better than unsalted (especially since the unsalted was more expensive for some reason).
I couldn’t have been more wrong about that assumption.
I will start out by saying, as far as the cashews are concerned, the overall quality wasn’t terrible. I have had plenty of other brands that promised whole cashews and were either mostly pieces or had smaller cashews inside the container. That wasn’t the case with the Walgreen’s brand. The cashews were larger in size than many other brands and I only found a small amount of broken pieces.
The cashews also seemed to be fresh. This probably shouldn’t surprise me. But, I have had plenty of other brands I couldn’t say that about (including some that seemed like they were very stale despite not being even close to the expiration date).
My biggest complaint about these was actually the salt. As I said before, I have had products with sea salt in the past and really couldn’t tell the difference when it came to taste. I could tell the difference this time; mostly because I couldn’t taste the salt at all. In fact, if I wouldn’t have seen the label on the can and had just eaten these out of a bowl, I would swear they were unsalted. In fact, I actually ended up adding some salt of my own to the canister.
Based on the fact I was shopping solely on price and these were the cheapest brand I could find, I don’t necessarily regret my decision to buy them. However, if you prefer salted cashews, this is a brand I would recommend avoiding because I really don’t think they were anything more than a cheaper unsalted variety.