Walnut Community

Walnuts played a starring role at this year’s Specialty Food Association’s prestigious sofi awards, presented at the Summer Fancy Food Show, with five products featuring walnuts taking home honors. That’s amazing in itself, but what’s truly unique about this list of winners is the diversity of food categories represented. Cookies, chocolates, crackers and plant-based meats all used walnuts to formulate award-winning products. Here are the 2022 sofi award winners that use walnuts.

Fig Walnut Macaroon Almond Butter, Big Spoon Roasters — Best New Product Award
Combine fresh roasted walnut chunks with toasted coconut, figs, organic maple syrup and sea salt, and you have a dreamy-smooth nut butter worthy of a sofi. Big Spoon Roasters made the nut butter as part of a Limited-Time Offering, and it received such praise that the jar made the permanent lineup.

Carrot Cake Chocolate, Chuao Chocolatier — Best New Product Award
Walnut and carrot cake lovers can receive the classic carrot cake taste experience, combined with something new: caramelized white chocolate. Gifts were a huge theme at this year’s Fancy Food Show, and this is the perfect addition to any gift basket or summer affair.

Walnut with Cranberry & Fennel Biscuits, Effie’s Homemade — Best New Product Award
Excitement abounded at the Effie’s Homemade booth, thanks to the sofi win. This unique toasted walnut biscuit includes a bright pop of cranberry and hint of fennel. Great on a charcuterie board — also a hot trend — with cheeses, beer or wine. We’ll eat and drink to that!

Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookie, Levain Bakery — Gold Medalist
Levain Bakery has busted open its retail bakery doors in the past year and made its way into the consumer packaged goods category. The cookie that started it all — the signature Chocolate Chip Walnut — is crispy on the outside with a thick and gooey center. Chunks of walnuts give this cookie a special kind of flavor and mouthfeel, and we can see why the sofis recognized this best seller.

Organic Vegan Nutty Loaf, Nutcase Vegan Meats — Gold Medalist
Nutcase Vegan’s lineup of plant-based meats all include walnuts, but the one recognized by the Specialty Food Association is a mind-blowingly delicious blend of walnut and mild seasonings. With the loaf being great as a salad topper or a sandwich filler, we went a little nutty for this product.

Are you a product developer ready for a challenge — a sofi win? Visit walnuts.org/food-professionals for product inspiration or development questions.

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