Nuts & Snacks

Bars, granola and nuts: what the label tells you

In a bar or a granola the difference is settled by the ingredient list: nuts, oats, tahini, honey and dried fruit near the top of it — not glucose syrup, palm oil and flavourings. Granola is baked with fat and a sweetener, which is what makes it crunchy and richer than raw muesli. With nuts, the crop matters: almonds are shaken from the trees between mid-August and mid-September, Aegina pistachios (PDO) are picked in September, and walnuts from Pelion and Epirus in September and October. Ask for the crop year and prefer nuts still in the shell: their fat turns rancid in warmth and light, so anything shelled, ground or already bound into a bar wants a dark, tightly closed container — and refrigeration easily doubles its life.