Chocolate Covered Hazelnuts

All hazelnuts are not created equal. Some are way better than others and we have found, arguably the best hazelnuts in Oregon. Most hazelnuts, like cacao are cultivated at a farm, but processed at a central location. The nut processor pays the farm by the ton so the farmers are motivated to grow the highest yielding nut rather than the most flavorful. For the past decade, we have been working with La Mancha Ranch and Orchard in Sweet Home, OR. He processes his own nuts so he is free from the limiting shackles of the industrial hazelnut complex and can grow whatever he wants. So he grows a strain of hazelnut that blows doors on all other hazelnuts in the land. All we do is coat them with chocolate, add some salt and a final dusting of granulated cocoa nib for a little acid. They may look like elk turds but they are the most flavorful chocolate covered hazelnuts in Oregon, if not the world.