6 Best And And 7 Worst Store-Bought Nut Mixes

Mixed nuts are like that friend who fits into any setting, equally comfortable on the hiking trail and at poker night as it is taking the table at high-end dinners and being worked into fun nut-based recipes for special occasions. It's also a satisfying snack that loads you up on protein, healthy fats, and fiber while giving your teeth plenty of intriguing textures to chew on. But no snack is perfect pal, not even the healthier nuts you should be eating included in a combination loaded with personality. Depending on the producer, your selection of mixed nuts could be the life of the party or just a crunchy dud who doesn't know when to go home.

Figuring out which mixed nuts sounded like a tasty endeavor. Surely, there are brands that have perfected the balance of blend, roast, and salting in ways that others just can't figure out. I set out to learn which store-bought selections were top-shelf and which were second-tier, if even that. You might not think there's a huge difference to be detected; I thought the same, until I tried them side-by-side and discovered the distinction for myself. It turns out not every nut mix is what it's cracked up to be.

Introducing a seed selection into a nut mix is a tricky move that can either warm up the combo or turn the party cold. Chomping into a strip of charred sesame is like eating ashes, a turn of events nobody wants messing up their nutty exploits. Kroger takes a shot at a sesame nut mix that factors sesame strips into a formula featuring a fun mingling of peanuts and cashews. At a slightly lower price than its other mixed nut options, the assumption is that sesame is cheaper to toss in than just another premium nut. But does it work without feeling like a cheat?

Oh, it does indeed. The gentle crunch and elevated umami essence becomes the leader of the band, providing a grounding flavor the peanuts and cashews can easily harmonize with. The interplay also offers an interesting texture spectrum that feels like something special rather than coming across as a cheap ploy to make the mixture more affordable. At just about $3 for an 8.5-ounce can, this one is a new regular on my shopping list, a bold discovery that's bound to spruce up my next party ... even if it's only a party of one.

Signature Select Mix Nuts Deluxe gives the crunchy snack sector a good go with its store-brand presentation. It's another Albertsons and Safeway offering that takes white-label creations to levels of quality as close to the national brands as possible. The company's efforts to lure shoppers to its own side of the aisle is something to applaud, and this nut mix could be an easy grab when hunger hits and a more healthful nom is on the menu. The little stamp stating "Love it or it's on us!" is compelling enough to encourage an otherwise reluctant passer-by to toss it in their cart and give it a try.

But at $4.49 for a 6-ounce bag, Signature Select rings up as one of the most expensive mixed nut selections on the list. Enticing shoppers to pay this much for such a small bag takes a lot of moxie, especially when the nuts inside are good but not life-changing. It's a pleasant party line-up of cashews, almonds, pecans, Brazil nuts, and hazelnuts, all roasted until soft and salted until tingly. Having tasted many other better-priced brands that are just as good, if not better, Signature Select gets a thumbs-down as an overall package.

I would've thought Great Value would go chintzy with its Deluxe Mixed Nuts despite what the name implies. It would be easy to drop a concentration of peanuts into a can with a sprinkling of pecans and walnuts, and call it "deluxe" for anyone not taking inventory of what other mixed nut selections offer. What a delightful surprise to find this can not only provides almonds, cashews, pistachios, and the ever-exotic macadamia nut in its mix (sorry, walnuts ... maybe next time), but it does so in an even-handed distribution that justifies the description.

This quintet stirs up a blend of creamy, smoky, and sweet flavors, each with its own texture that shows how uniquely every nut takes the roasting process. It's also a pleasing visual display sprinkled in a bowl or scattered on a snack board, with a variety of enticing shapes and snazzy colors — thanks for the punch of green, pistachios! At around $6 for a 15.25-ounce can, it's well-priced for the quantity and the collection of nuts in the can, a literal great value for the mixed nut fan to jump in on.

Organic options in the mixed nut world may be a draw for careful snackers who like keeping their eating lives as clean as possible. Adding almonds, pecans, and cashews to your healthy diet means nothing if they aren't lean and clean. Albertsons and Safeway provide O Organics Nut Trio, a selection that addresses the issue by filling the bag with nothing but organic, dry-roasted nuts you can feel good about eating — as long as health is your main purpose in picking this nut mix out of the line-up.

Truth be told, there's a bit of a dirty flavor to the almonds, cashews, and pecans in the bag, a surprising finding with all the organic hullabaloo in mind. It undercuts the natural warmth of the nuts to the point of tasting bitter upon second and third tastes. At about $2 for a 1.5-ounce bag, it's also the highest-priced pick in the bushel, a factor that should drive quality in every aspect. But falling short in the flavor category is a flaw that hangs up these healthy crunchers.

CVS aims to win hearts and tongues of its clientele with Gold Emblem Mixed Nuts with Peanuts, a presumably price-friendly 8-ounce can that dials in at just below the $9 mark. That's not even comparable to the other brands, a skyrocketing selection that has a lot to live up to if it's going to justify the dollars spent. How could a drugstore brand possibly hope to make the cut?

Somehow, CVS pulls it off beautifully. Maybe it's the inclusion of skin-on peanuts, which retain their sweetness better than dry roasted. Or the balance of almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, and pecans, all of which get fair representation in the can. The people behind Gold Emblem brand know the right way to achieve harmony in taste and texture, a surprise that puts this can in the elite of the mixed nut movers and shakers. Way to put the crunch on the competition, CVS!

Companies that make mixed nuts like to brag about their low peanut concentration, a weird flex that shows off how much they care about. Even if there are fewer of these filler nuts (which are actually legumes, as real nut aficionados will tell you) taking up space, the rest of the mix needs to do its part to dazzle snackers. And in Kroger Mixed Nuts with Sea Salt, the cast of characters includes cashews, almonds, Brazil nuts, pecans, and hazelnuts — a real who's-who from the premium nut world that should explode into a phenomenal mix when in one another's presence.

Put this mix on the "meh" list, mostly for the limited salting that seems to let the other flavors merge into a single sensation. Even having a moderate $4-ish price for a 10.3-ounce can doesn't make things better. The walnut pieces are gently toasted and lend a slightly maple-like twist, but everything else in the can is surprisingly bland, as if they've been improperly stored and lost their freshness. Even almonds, which can usually save a weaker nut mix, step back into the pale. The result is a mid-level mash-up that might as well be all peanuts.

Kroger stocks its Simple Truth Sea Salt Roasted Deluxe Nut Mix (whew!) among its produce section, with nut mixes and stand-alones mean to feel less like a snack and more like a healthy option from the grove. Encouraging shoppers to consider nuts part of the plant-based dining spectrum is a smart move that lets the chain double-up on visibility while giving nut lovers a range of uses for their favorite food. And Simple Truth bears the "Free From" stamp, which means an absence of artificial ingredients so you can breathe easier as you crunch.

A sturdy one-pound bag of cashews, almonds, pecans, and Brazil nuts, Simple Truth is a simple pleasure that gets things right on all fronts. Light roasting adds crunch and elevates flavor without going overboard, while a delicate dusting of sea salt throws in a lovely tingle. At $9 or so for the bag, it's a premium selection you can store high on a pantry shelf while putting a decoy can of cheaper nuts within reach, to keep casual snackers in your house from demolishing your stash too quickly. Not that I would do that ... but I might, now that I've thought of it.

Ah, Planter's, that monocled monarch of roasted nuts, steps beyond its peanut-based empire and offers up a mixed nut bunch with almonds, cashews, Brazil nuts, and pecans on deck to keep its famous goobers company. Such a reputation for pleasing customers with crunch-worthy snacks sets up the company for both good and bad in the mixed nuts game: The label announces in tiny print the contents contain less than 50% peanuts, but it says nothing about what Planter's is capable of when it comes to bringing out the flavor of actual nuts.

I assumed good things, since it would be silly for a food maker to fumble when expanding its core product. An accidental comparison of Planter's and Kroger roasted peanuts showed a tremendous difference in Planter's favor. It turns out the nut maker goes lighter on the roasting process in its mixed nuts, resulting in a mellow flavor that's just okay. Every nut in the mix has such a similar flavor, it's impossible to tell them apart. And at $5 and up for this 10.3-ounce can, the contents don't live up to their price point.

Walgreens gives patrons a snacking alternative with the Nice! catalog of lesser-priced possibilities. Nice! Roasted Mixed Nuts are regularly-priced around $6 for a 10.3-ounce bag, which sounds pricey overall but leaps out as a bargain among the higher-priced brand names Walgreens carries, such as Planters' 10.3-ounce can priced at over $7. Comparison shopping is the name of the game, especially when nut-based snacks come at a premium, and Nice! is ready to offer an alternative. It turns out the mix isn't only nicely-priced, it's nicely made as well.

Shake out a handful of peanuts, almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, and pecans and you'll discover a delightful candy bar- or brittle-like flavor. as if the sugar surrounding the nut center has been left off the assembly line. There's no sweetener on the ingredients list, just the nuts, a bit of oil, and sea salt. The attention paid to the roasting process seems to let the natural sweetness rise to the surface, providing a thoroughly enjoyable mix that has its own special personality to offer. To put it in groan-worthy word play, this roasted nut mix is very Nice!-ly done.

Grab a can of Good & Gather Mixed Nuts and you'll be paying about the same as you would for other store brand nut mixes. But what you get for what you pay is a different story. You would think shaking up peanuts, almonds, cashews, pecans, and hazelnuts would have a semi-standard calculus that food producers couldn't miss. Somehow, Target's home label falls short of the correct answer, carrying the X instead of subtracting the Z for a result that begs the question, "Y?" Oh wait ... I'm thinking of algebra.

It's not a tragedy for the snack world, for sure. The blend is passable though not outstanding, but with a prevalence of peanuts that should tilt the price downward, but somehow doesn't. Tricky Target! At $6 for just under a pound, this can feels like buying a box of Lucky Charms and getting more kibble than marshmallows: a disappointing mélange that has a lot of potential, especially with the bursts of hazelnuts that break through to offer a touch of seasonal autumn flavor. But it can't rise above its sneaky peanut preponderance to achieve more than okay status.

Cruising through the Aldi aisles reveals a wilderness of crunchy and chew noshes of the mixed nut character, though many are trail mixes and GORP combinations, with dried fruit and candy shaken into the bag for a dose of sweetness. Purists with a keen eye can find Simply Nature Raw Cashews, Walnuts, & Macadamia Nuts standing tall and sure among the flashier nibbles. This over-$4, 6-ounce bag takes a smaller swing at the mixed nut target by keeping the contents closer to their natural state, a big boost for raw vegans and snackers who prefer softer textures in their nut selections.

The monotonous colors in the bag are hard to get past, considering that color almost always equals flavor. But one bite reveals a combination of softer, sweeter mixed nuts than other brands prefer, perfect for topping a banana or pumpkin bread without competing with the other flavors in the recipe. Because they're raw, snackers have the option of toasting them for a few minutes in a pan or a toaster oven to bring out bolder flavor, something that can't be done with pre-roasted nut mix. In addition to being a best-tasting entrant, this Aldi invention wins the versatility badge for bagging up a flexibly nutty bunch.

Sam's Club takes on the better-known nut growers of the food world with its Member's Mark Deluxe Mixed Nuts selection, a hefty jar of cashews, almonds, pecans, pistachios, and hazelnuts that feels like a slam-dunk addition to your cart. Many Member's Mark items are solid attempts at knocking national brands for a loop, giving shoppers a less-expensive version of items that capture the taste and enjoyability from their more familiar predecessors. Not so with this nut concoction, which could use a little more ambition to come out of its shell.

Paying around $12 for over 2 pounds, you'll be expecting a party beneath the lid that's just waiting to break out. Instead, you get a disappointing mix that tastes homogenous, as if all the nuts in the jar have been roasted to the same level of flavor. This flattens out the medley of tastes nut fans look forward to in a mix, especially one with the confrontational adjective "deluxe" stamped in bold typeface on the front of the container. This time, Member's misses the Mark.

Target adds to its product line with Good Sense, a bulk version of snacks and goodies that includes an array of mixed nuts. This 6-ounce but is a smaller order than the larger Good & Gather cans from the big boxer, with a perceived higher quality thanks to the near-$5 price point that almost triples the price by volume of other nut mixes on Target shelves. For that price, you'd expect these treats to come with a nut butler who serves them to you on a silver platter. Alas, that isn't part of the deal, which means these nuts have a lot to live up to.

So, why do these end up with a "worst" designation? It isn't for the nuts themselves, though they're nothing special; a combo of almonds, cashews, pecans, and walnuts gently roasted until nicely al dente point rather than super crunchy. They'd make a nice topper for oatmeal or a granola parfait if you gave them a solid chop. But for the price, they're an average nut mix, only so-so when they should be so, so much more, especially with snacks of equal quality and lesser cost standing so close by.

I knew there would be a bit of a challenge ahead getting clear on which nut mixes were best and which weren't. Each nut mix offers its own idea of what should be a winning combination, though usually the formula includes a blend of peanuts, almonds, cashews, and walnuts, with occasional appearances made by Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, and pistachios. At times, it felt like comparing apples to oranges, which drove me to take each mix on its own merits. It was a much more straightforward process when I rated a single jar on how well it worked overall.

Aspects of taste and texture were, of course, my primary concern. It may not seem like there's a lot of wiggle room with nuts, but roasting means something different to every producer, with some cans feeling crunchier than others. I also paid attention to the ratio and distribution of the various nuts in each blend, which can change the experience considerably, as can salt content. To get clear on the quality of each, I tasted the members of each mix individually, then as a blend, to find out which worked best and which didn't measure up to the others.