Amazon Brand - Happy Belly Smoked Almonds, 24 Ounce

They seemed rather bland compared to other raw almonds that I have ordered from Amazon. Perhaps it is the pasteurization process that made them so. The price was better than some others, but the tastelessness made up for the good price. I was wondering why anyone would pasturize almonds, but upon a closer look I noticed that it appears that some bugs had been eating them. No, I didn't find any bugs or bug remains, but they do appear to have been eaten by something. These were not just them hitting against each other but as the picture shows the indentations were deep. I am definitely not going be buying this product in the future. Not only did taste very bland, look like they had been eaten by bugs, but I had to wait more than 3 weeks from the time I ordered them before they were delivered.

I think this is a good start but if Amazon is going to seriously be in the almond business, they need to go back to the drawing board.First, these almonds are LIGHTLY roasted. Very lightly. If you've tasted Nut Harvest brand, these are even less roasted than those. I don't mind dry roasted almonds but these could stand a little more time in the oven.Secondly, I wouldn't call these salted. I'm not a salt fiend by any stretch of the imagination. I actually prefer lightly salted almonds. But these...I don't detect any salt at all which, as lightly as they are roasted, makes them kind of mediocre.Would I buy these again? No. If anything, the good part of these nuts is that it will prevent binge eating because they're not even good enough to actually crave.

These almonds are delicious. I will definitely purchase them again!I lightly roast these raw almonds in my toaster oven to give them even better flavor. I spread them evenly, about 3/4-inch thick, on an ungreased toaster-oven tray. I set the toaster oven to 250 degrees and bake them for 25-30 minutes. Almonds can burn a lot faster than you might expect, so be careful to not overbake them.I eat these almonds on their own as a filling snack, and I also use them for baking. One excellent way to bake with them I have found is to use them to make delicious, vegan, chewy, cherry-chocolate-chip cookies. The addition of almonds imparts a deep, rich flavor to the cookies. Note that grinding up the ingredients in a food processor (other than, of course, not overbaking them) is the secret trick for giving these cookies a terrific, chewy texture.VEGAN, CHERRY-CHOCOLATE-CHIP COOKIESIngredients•1/2 cup rolled oats (144 calories)•1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes (144 calories)•1/2 cup (75 gm) lightly roasted almonds (410 calories•1/2 cup coconut oil (960 calories)•3/4 cup raw sugar (585 calories)•1/4 cup maple syrup (163 calories)•1 tablespoon honey (60 calories)•1 T stevia (optional if you like your cookies less sweet)•1 T vanilla•1 teaspoon cherry extract OR 1 teaspoon almond extract•1 tablespoon arrowroot powder (egg substitute)•1/2 teaspoon baking soda•1/4 teaspoon salt•6 tablespoon water (or cold tea)•1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (336 calories)•1 cup dried cherries (143 gm) (442 calories)•1 cup vegan mini chocolate chips (175 gm) (887 calories)Directions•Preheat the oven to 350º. Grease cookie sheets.•Chop up the dried cherries into small pieces, about the size of the mini chocolate chips.•Place the flour, dried cherries and chocolate chips into a large bowl, mix them together well with a large spoon, and set aside.•Place the oats, coconut flakes, and almonds in a Vitamix OR regular blender OR, ideally, a food processor. Grind them to a coarse powder. Don’t worry if there are a few small chunks of the almonds. It will add interesting texture to the cookies.•Place all the other ingredients besides the flour mixture (which remains set aside) into the food processor with the oat/coconut/almond powder. Puree all these ingredients together until they form a thick, sticky syrup.•Scrape the pureed mixture out of the food processor and into the bowl containing the flour mixture. Use a large, strong spoon or knead the flour mixture into the pureed mixture by hand. Or, if you have a large, table mixer with a bread hook, you could use that.•Use a melon-ball scoop or soup spoon to dip 1-tablespoon-size balls onto a greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Press down flat into a disc.•Bake the cookies 6-7 minutes. Do NOT overbake. They should be pale and only slightly golden brown on the edges. They may be slightly shiny on the top with the center still a little soft. Let the cookies sit on the hot cookie sheet until they solidify. If you try to move them immediately, they will break apart. I personally bake these cookies in a toaster oven. When the timer goes off at 6 minutes, I turn off the toaster oven and let the cookies sit inside the still-warm oven for a minute. Then I let them continue to stay on the tray until they fully solidified, about 10 minutes.•This recipe makes 6 dozen (72) cookies at 57 calories each.•Note: These cookies freeze well and stay very fresh. You can also make this dough ahead of time and freeze for baking later. Shape the dough into balls, seal them in a freezer bag, and freeze them for up to 3 months. When ready to bake, allow them to thaw so you can press them flat before baking.•Note: You can make this recipe gluten-free by substituting for the 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour any of the following: 1 cup rolled oats ground into flour OR 1 cup ground almonds OR 1 cup tapioca flour.

I was so disgusted! I opened a new bag of nuts I purchased and pulled out a handful and started eating these. This is my second bag as my family and I had enjoyed eating the first one. Within the first few nuts I felt an odd texture on one of the nuts and spit it out in my hand and to my horror there was a web and a groove in the nut. I almost lost it. My guess it was an old dried cocoon of some type, the worm was already gone. I found 3 of these in the bag and threw the whole bag away. Makes me wonder how many we ate. I won't be buying these again!

There is NO mention that these Happy Belly almonds contain anything but almonds and salt. In fact they contain industrial seed oils. I have attached a photo of the ingredients. They contain canola and/or peanut and/or cottonseed oil. They are greasy with this seed oil. Some of the reviews say that these almonds have almost no salt. My package contains lots of salt, it is very very salty. I do not object to salt but I avoid industrial seed oils. If you don't mind eating canola or peanut or cottonseed oil then the almonds are decently flavored. But if you expect an Amazon listing to include the ingredients in the product you are ordering, then this product is deceptive.

Label should be re done to state that these are BARELY salted. To say these are salted was very misleading. I've had "lightly salted" almonds from other brands and they are saltier than these by a long shot. The almonds also were not the best of quality. Some tasted like they were half roasted and others were almost raw. There just seemed to be an overall inconsistency. I figured I would give these a shot given the price. But, sadly I was very disappointed. I guess you get what you pay for in the end. Would not recommend these at all.

I can't understand why they have so many bad reviews. These are regular, normal RAW almonds. No salt, nothing but almonds. They have the normal crunch that a raw almond will have, not the snap of a roasted almond. They are tasty and the flavor is fresh and clean. Very well packed and arrived faster than promised. Nothing but great praise from me and my family. And for $12+ for 2 pounds it was a great deal.

Don’t even think to buy this. There are holes some of the almonds and you need to pay attention to bugs!!! It’s terrible and not fresh at all. Waste of money