Ingredients · Nut & seed

Almond

Prunus amygdalus · Rosaceae (rose family)

Almond
Sliced or chopped almond pieces — thirteen products carry them, always in the dessert direction. In a tea blend almond brings a marzipan sweetness and a real richness that reads as creamy even in a cup with no milk in it, which is why it turns up in every caramel, chocolate and biscotti blend in this catalogue. It is worth stating plainly that this is a tree nut, for anyone who needs to know that.

What it’s like, and how to use it

The partSeed
KindNut & seed
CaffeineCaffeine-free
Where it is fromWestern Asia (native range)
TasteMarzipan sweetness with a soft, buttery richness; reads as creamy even without milk

How to use it

In dessert tea blends, where the pieces are meant to be seen as much as tasted. Steeps into a rounder, richer cup. Toasted almond is stronger again.

With food

Cherry and apricot, its stone-fruit cousins. Chocolate. Caramel and toffee. Vanilla. Coffee. Orange. Honey. Rose. Cream.

With spices

Vanilla. Cardamom. Cinnamon. Rose. Saffron. Anise, in the amaretto direction.

With tea

Black tea, especially in dessert blends. Pu-erh. Rooibos. Green tea, in the Moroccan direction.

Its story

Where it comes from

Origins are debated — evidence points across Central Asia, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kurdistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, with most sources identifying Iran and Anatolia as the likely home. Domestication began by selecting the sweet type out of the many bitter types in the wild. California now produces about 80 per cent of the world's almonds. No lot origin is named in our notes.

What happened

Almonds were in Tutankhamun's tomb around 1325 BCE, probably imported from the Levant. In the Bible, Aaron's rod brings forth almond flowers, and the menorah's form is said to be modelled on almond blossom. Marzipan was developed in the Middle Ages and is still the most direct expression of what an almond tastes like. Two pieces of botany matter in a kitchen. First, an almond is not a nut: it is a drupe — a fruit with an outer hull and a hard shell around the seed — which makes it a relative of the peach rather than of the walnut. Second, there are two types, bitter and sweet, and domestication was the business of selecting the sweet ones — the almond in every marzipan and every dessert blend.

On the shelf with it

Every product it goes into.

Every ingredient in the shop

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Other ways in

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