Try My Nuts
Some of our favorite things are hot and dirty

by Rick Kinnaird

Try My Nuts is a store in Avon (Hatteras Island Plaza) and there are locations in Corolla and Duck as well. If you thought that this was some sort of double entendre, play on words, cheesy beach front type name, you'd be right. The store features nuts (of course), hot sauces, gourmet candies and clothing and they offer free samples while you shop.

Some of the nut offerings include gourmet peanuts, wasabi peanut crunchies, cajun nuts, peanut brittle, chocolate-covered cashews and flavored pistachios. The hot sauces have names like Crazy Mother Pucker's Fire Roasted Fusion, Carpet Scooter Garlic Hot Sauce and Burn in Hell Osama. There is also a clear hot sauce called Frost Bite that we gave a heat-loving friend of ours for Christmas. (We haven't heard what he thought.) My poker-loving son, Alex, received some Texas Hold 'em Hot Sauce as a gift and we put it in everything from stir-fries to burgers. It was very flavorful and, yes, hot.

Our personal favorite in the gourmet candy category is White Trash, described as "an irresistible mix of pretzels, crisp cereals, and pecans covered in a creamy white chocolate confection." A similar product is Dirty White Trash which is White Trash plus chocolate. Space does not permit us to list the ingredients in this product which take up over 17 lines of small print on the back of the package. Suffice it to say most ingredients fall into the "I don't know and please don't tell me" category. You can get the two "trash" products in a sack or a white plastic can with a black and gold bow.

The store is replete with multi-colored T-shirts and hats that say things like "Who Needs a Speedo When You Got Nuts Like These?" and "Size Does Matter." You can even purchase an athletic supporter that says "Try My Nuts." And, if you were wondering where to get that bra and g-string made out of candy ...

The concept for Try My Nuts is clever. It's cute in the Jessica Simpson in Dukes of Hazzard sort of way. All of the products we've tried are good. White Trash is especially good if you've had a little too much to drink and are looking for something sweet and salty. You know, something to take the edge off while you're grilling that burger and it's not done yet, but you've got the munchies and you can't wait, so you pop off the top and dive your fingers into the liner bag feeling for those few morsels left in the corner. Then you remember being in the store wondering what size can of White Trash to get because it ain't cheap so you get one of the smaller sizes, but now, here you are, hungry and you're digging for the last little bits and thinking to yourself how good this is and you wonder, "Why did I get the small size?"

Think about that when you're in the row of Try My Nuts where they have the White Trash and Dirty White Trash. Just save yourself some time and get the biggest size they have. What the heck, you're on vacation, right?

Check out Try My Nuts at www.trymynuts.com or give them a call at 866-513-NUTS. They do mail order if you can't wait.