Context

Ah Salalah, a beautiful place in the south of Oman Dhofar region that is famous for its khareef season or monsoon which turns this region into lush and foggy greenery. A serene and dreamy landscape with windy roads that offer a respite from the heat and dryness generally found in other areas of this fantastic country. If you want to see camels, green hills, beautiful trees, and a welcoming city, hit up this Salalah in the southern tip of Oman!

We tried a few different pistachios in Oman already, some really good iranian ones in Muscat, others that were pretty good from one of those mini supermarkets on the road, and today we are trying some from a more established company Carrefour which is a huge french multinational retailer. More specifically, the one in the city of Salalah.

Presentation

In order to purchase these, we went to the nuts section in the Carrefour in Salalah and asked the helpful person what kind of nuts we would like ( in our case big size iranian pistachios ), and you get served the desired amount in a plastic bag with a sticker on it describing the contents, the weight, the price, expiration date, and a bar code.

Inside Carrefour bag of pistachios

Visual Aspect

No notable smell is observed when opening the bag (except maybe a bit dry) but the first thing you notice is the sheer size and shape of these nuts ! Big and long is the simplest way to describe them with beige shells powdered with fine salt.  Once unshelled they still look very good with a reddish brownish outer layer hiding and sometimes fusing with the green of these pistachios.

Taste

Crunch crunch crunch… that is the happy sound you could have heard if you were there with us on the road as we started snacking on these. Immediately almost a  taste of buttered toast  is noticed in addition to a great crunch.

The crunchiness is pretty much perfect and you almost feel like you are eating cashews or salted almonds. It doesn’t have the paprika flavor like the other iranian pistachios tested in Muscat, but a more subtle flavor that is difficult to describe. One thing for sure though is that these pistachios have a nice crumble.

We wouldn’t say the flavour is mind bending but it is quite good indeed but the saltiness is very fitting.

Conclusion

These are good pistachios due to their size, shape and perfect crunchiness. The taste is pretty good with a good amount of saltiness which would make these pistachios a really good companion to a sweet tea. There were some closed ones, a bad one, and some pistachios that seemed a bit over-roasted. The price of 8.49 omr / kg makes it about 5 USD for a quarter kilo so it’s not on the cheap side.  The final score of these pistachios from Carrefour is a very respectable 4/5.

Are you in Oman? Did you try these pistachios or other pistachios from Carrefour? Let us know in the comments !